


Rain or Shine

by Tomorrow_ming



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Hank Anderson & Connor Parent-Child Relationship, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-06-17 10:43:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15459606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tomorrow_ming/pseuds/Tomorrow_ming
Summary: The story of a newspaper journalist with Connor and Hank together to solve the case.





	1. New Comer

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting work on AO3，I feel a little nervous...
> 
> But still hope you can enjoy it，and give me some advice : )
> 
> Update 2~3 chapters at the end of each month.
> 
> The Chinese version of this work has come to an end.If you can read Chinese , please go to my blog to view :http://t-o-m-o.lofter.com/tag/%E5%BA%95%E7%89%B9%E5%BE%8B
> 
> Thanks for translation：Thirtyfiveowls

“This doesn’t seem much different from New York.”

The young woman with long, chestnut-colored hair wiped fog off the glass and curiously peered out the window, a sparkling nights-cape    of the city reflected in her deep brown eyes. It was quiet inside the auto-piloted cab, a soft song played on the radio.

All metropoles were similar in that way. She soon became disinterested and closed her eyes, sighing a tired sigh. Other than the one time she went to college in New York, this was the first trip she took on her own outside of her quaint hometown. It was a bit nerve-wrecking, to say the least. But reality was never kind to rookies like her. Hardly a second had passed after her long journey to the city, she was called into work to meet with a guy she’d only ever heard of. Alright, she thought, no matter how much the lieutenant in question sounded difficult to approach, she still had to scratch her head to figure out how to get along with him.

Although, his alleged android partner would be a rather suitable sampling subject.

“We are arriving at your destination, please prepare to exit the vehicle. Thank you for choosing Detroit Taxi services, we hope to see you soon.”

As the mechanical voice continued, she saw through the rain neon lights outside a small bar, flickering incessantly. She waited for the cab door to open, carefully stepped outside, then spent the next few minutes struggling to get her heavy luggage out of the trunk.

The Detroit rain came down endlessly, drenching the city’s new comer, from her coat to her mood, in a gloomy dampness.

She stood at the bar’s entrance fixing her frizzled hair, a glance behind the door revealed a sign that read “NO ANDROIDS AND DOGS ALLOWED”; the words were crossed out with red paint. Next to it, someone else had drawn a checkmark and wrote, “keep those plastic bastards out of our sanctuary”, which was again crossed out with neat, straight lines, and changed to, “ANDROIDS ALLOWED”, followed by a smaller font, “but still no dogs.”

This made her laugh. She’d seen many snide remarks like this on her way into the city, opposing graffiti over the timeless issue of android vs. human. It had been three years since the global revolution that changed everything, and yet, the fate of the human race had just begun.

How would our future unfold from here on? Coexistence or else?

This field mission wasn’t just a rash decision. She needed to search for some form of answer to the question, even if the premise was entirely too vast to comprehend, anything that might lead to something seemed like a way to change what had been done.

She shook her head, deciding to reprioritize and start from the top. Just as she was about to enter the bar, someone reached over her shoulder and twisted the door handle down.

“Excuse me, ma’am. I don’t mean to interrupt, I just need to get by.”

She turned to find a stranger standing behind her. He leaned in to push open the door, simultaneously closing the space between the two of them. He wore a slim suit, soaking wet from the rain. All the rainwater made her eyelashes heavy with humidity, so she looked up. Against the dark lighting from inside the bar was a handsome silhouette of a man. Waterdrops formed at the ends of his well-groomed hair, streaming down his cheek, yet he was composed; there was no embarrassment or awkwardness in his dark brown eyes.

He blinked a few times, LED lights lit up in a circle over his temple. Oh, so that’s why.

“Sorry, ”she started to apologize, but he had already disappeared into the bar crowd.

It seemed like city androids weren’t as friendly as countryside ones. She made a mental remark to herself.

“Hi, excuse me, do you know if lieutenant Anderson is here?”

The joint was quite crowded, she had a photo saved in her phone just in case, but couldn’t find the man that matched it, and so had to ask the bartender for help. She stood at the counter and waited for a response. No one even batted an eye.

“Hello!” She raised her voice, a young black man looked up briefly, met her inquiring gaze, paused, then went back to what he was doing behind the bar.

What kind of crap service is this place?

She was exhausted by the endless misfortunes, from her boss’s demands to the bad weather, and now the indifferent attitude of city folks had turned her exhaustion into anger. She made a move before she could even think it through.

“Excuse me!” She slammed down on her suitcase. Her voice came out much louder than she had  expected. Guests at the counter all turned around at once, which instantly made her regret her bold behaviour. It was too late to hide or run, so she followed up with, “E…excuse me? Is there a lieutenant Anderson here?”

Just as she was about to suffocate in the overwhelming awkwardness of the silent bar, an audible sigh answered her inquiry.

“Why must trouble always find its way to me?”

A man with shaggy silver hair who was sitting nearby turned around, downing what was left in his glass, his face a concoction of detest. The “unfriendly” android she had met outside the bar earlier stood by his side.

…

24 years-old, newspaper journalist, no criminal records.

Connor stood there with his arms crossed. He didn’t need to scan the newcomer again, but couldn’t help to stare as she made her way over, hauling behind her several large suitcases. She had her backpack secured tightly in her arms, awkwardly apologizing to strangers along the way, as if the scene she had just caused was merely a programming dysfunction.

As humans tend to say, impulse is the Devil.

There were 39 ways in order of efficiency that she could’ve used to locate Hank in this bar. She chose the forth to last one.

Or perhaps he should’ve advised Hank to update his profile photo. After all, they didn’t come equipped with facial recognition and a database as he did.

…

Connor smiled a friendly smile at the girl standing in front of them.

He had just learned from Hank that a journalist was coming to conduct a field interview with them over a period of time. She must be the one they sent. According to his social protocols to be as appropriately friendly as possible, Connor did his best to reflect kindness.

Either she had some predisposed bias or the RK800 model still needed improvements on facial expressions, she seemed to have taken this welcoming gesture as mockery.

How rude of him. She made a note to herself to stay as far away from the android as possible, settled down, smiled, and offered to shake hands with the man at the bar, “Hi! Lieutenant Anderson, I’m the reporter they sent for the interview, it’s an honor to work with you.”

He hesitated, wiped his hand hastily on his shirt before reaching out to her slightly trembling open palm, “Yes, they told me about you, and yet…” he took a pause, smiling, “no one mentioned you were as feisty as you are, miss.”

“Sorry about that,” she lowered her head in shame.

“No, don’t worry about it.”

Hank didn’t want to put her on the spot, so he pointed to the android.

“This is, uh, my partner, Connor. He’s sassy, cocky, insubordinate…but at the end of the day, he helps with the cases.”

She turned towards him. Connor offered a hand.

This was her first proper look at the android. Nuances aside, this advanced prototype was built quite handsomely. He was tall, distinguishably good-looking, a short strand of hair sometimes fell into his deep, cold eyes. His sharp stare softened by a slight droop at the corner of his eyes, which made him look innocent more than anything.

He wasn’t smiling, or doing anything else, really. He simply looked at her with the kind of calming intensity that reminded her of a collie back home that she used to play fetch with all the time.

His maker must’ve anticipated the prototype’s tendency to offend people and poured his heart over giving the android eyes that could make you forgive anything.

“Hello?”

The android waited for her response, his head slightly tilted in confusion.

“Hi, Connor.” She revealed her most warming smile yet in this horrible day, steadily took hold of his hand, her human touch warmed his mechanical fingertips.

The rain poured on. Amongst the shadows of the monstrous technological high-rises, a bar in the old town district seemed tattered and insignificant, and yet, a cold, Detroit night just became warmer because of it.


	2. First Case

She felt she was ready to engage on her first day of work. But as a country girl, witnessing a murder scene investigation first thing in the morning was clearly a bit too much. The biggest news back home was that somebody had stole ten chickens from his neighbor overnight.

Not wanting to give a bad impression by being late the first day, she simply washed and dressed herself before rushing to the crime scene, only to find that neither of her interviewees had shown up yet.

She rubbed at her eyes, not having put on any makeup, and waited outside the yellow tape staring blankly at the closed-off mansion. She had done a bit of research on her way over. This house was set in Detroit’s high-end living area, all residents lived far apart and hidden, with state-of-the-art security systems and 24/7 patrol guards. It was hard for anyone to get in, she hadn’t seen any reporters from the media here, it was just her and the police, who were busying at the scene.

How could a murder possibly happen in a place like this?

Someone tapped on her arm, catching her off guard. She was startled when she whipped her head around, only to see a heavy, middle aged guy with a pile of folders in his hand. “Are you the journalist interviewing Hank?”

“Oh, yes, hi.” She quickly composed herself and smiled at the officer.

“Not an easy job, I’ll say. Him and his android partner are tough to beat…well, they’re not gonna show up for a while, if you need anything, just find me.” The kind man gave her an empathetic look, gestured with a wave, and walked away to an nearby police vehicle.

“Alright, I guess? Thanks…”

He never made it to the car when they both heard noises coming from the end of the road, two familiar figures approached, one of them was stopped by the guards stationed outside the gate.

“For Christ’s sake, do you even understand English? I said I’m with the DPD!” Hank was growling like a giant, pissed-off whit cat.

“Sorry, sir, we can’t let you pass without a valid ID.” The android guards wasn’t having any of it.

“That little shit took my ID! Connor! Connor! Get the fuck back here!”

“Good morning, miss.” Meanwhile, the android had already arrived at the scene, he winked first, then greeted her normally, completely non-responsive to the obscenity overheard behind him.

“Morning, what’s going on?” She peered over him, Hank was still struggling in the distance.

Lieutenant Anderson was late again, for the thirteenth time this month, I thought some more affirmative action was needed to correct his behavior.” Connor was smiling when he said this, but the yellow LED lights on his temple betrayed his true thoughts. He brought out Hank’s police badge and handed it to her, “if you could please deliver this to the lieutenant in fifteen minutes, that would be wonderful.”

She watched as the android strolled peacefully behind the yellow tape, then looked back to the man waving madly at her, sighed, and hastily walked towards the guards, wondering if these two grown men were actually twelve-year-olds.

By the time she successfully brought Hank into the crime scene, he’d already spotted Connor and grabbed him by his collar, “give me one reason I shouldn’t punch you in the face right now because I’ve got the fixed asset depreciation theory on my side.” He was fist-ready to go, but the android was quite composed.

“Sorry, lieutenant Anderson, but I’m a global limited edition now, I’m worth about thirty times more.” He raised a finger to his lips, casually licking the dark red blood stain off with a roll of the tongue.

“Oh, God! You disgusting…” Hank threw the android aside in an instant and covered his mouth. Connor took a few steps back, regained balance, and straightened out his crooked tie.

“Ugh, I feel bad for whoever’s gonna kiss that guy though, ”the girl tried to pat his back in case he was really going to throw up.

“Trust me, he’s not getting there anytime soon.” Hank looked her in the eyes with sincerity.

Meanwhile, the android, who was focused on the scene of the crime, overheard their conversation, turned around with a thoughtful expression and saw the girl smiling at Hank’s words awkwardly.

…

The investigation finally took off after that.

There were two floors to the mansion, not as many rooms as you would have thought, and the décor simplistic yet sophisticated. It came with all the high tech amenities the upper class so frequently enjoyed having, from a holographic home theater to an all-transparent scenic elevator.

“Why do these people need an elevator for a two-story house? No one’s handicapped here.” Hank was behind her somewhere cursing loudly as she observed the middle-aged man lying on the living room floor, feeling somewhat wasteful for all the extravagance he had left behind.

This wasn’t her first time seeing a corpse, in fact. Senior year of college, she managed to get an internship at the local police department writing public press releases, and occasionally helped with taking pictures at crime scenes.

Still, murders were rare. The slight stench in the air was a bit upsetting, enough to make her frown.

“Allen Brown. He was a banker, died two days ago, hasn’t been long.”

“We received a call from one of the community guards at 5am this morning, they said the lights had been on for a long time, and the front door was unlocked. When they entered, they found the victim already dead. The only set of prints we found were the victim’s, along with traces of blue blood. Right now we’re possibly looking at an android perpetrator.”

With that, Hank left to go up the stairs to search the upper floor. The girl, however, was quick to follow Connor, notepad in hand, carefully overstepping various objects in this messy room. The skilled android worked with intense focus, she couldn’t find a good timing to ask questions, nor did the android need any help with anything he couldn’t just observe and automatically know. She was of absolute no help to him.

Well, as long as I stay out of trouble, I guess. She thought to herself cheeringly.

“Hey, Connor, don’t forget to check if they have an attic, or up the roof, or some…I don’t know, large, dark, empty spaces that cats probably likes to hide in…”Hank had finished search upstairs and was coming down, rubbing his temples signaling a headache, probably from drinking too much last night.

“Why is that?” The girl asked with curiosity.

“Based on prior experience, the attic or the roof have a higher chance of being hideout spots for perpetrators.” Connor looked around, finally locking gaze with a vent opening in the corner and walked off. She turned confusingly towards the lieutenant.

“Just…look at it as a favorite hiding spot for androids.” Hank shrugged, rolled up the files in his hands, and followed his partner.

…

“Lieutenant Anderson, large amounts of blue blood residue are found here. He must have stayed after the incident then left, but the vent opening isn’t big enough to let any of us pass.”

Connor was looking up at the vent and frowning.

“Did you notice something?” As the girl appeared from the corner, his expression suddenly lit up.

“Maybe you could…”

“No, no, no Connor, it’s dangerous. I can’t let her take the risk.”

Before Connor could say anything else, Hank barked a “it’s an order”, and shut up him.

“Do you want me to crawl in and investigate?” She observed the vent opening, then the two guys, a look of delightful excitement in her eyes.

“This is no joke. On the off chance the perp is still hiding in there, you’re just a common citizen…”Hank was half way through his sentence, Connor had already lifted the girl up to the ceiling, and as he had measured before, she fit through the entrance perfectly.

“Guys!” Hank had never felt more undermined as a lieutenant in this moment.

“See anything?” Connor looked up, trying to keep balance at the same time.

“No…nothing yet, I don’t think there’s anything here…” she had a hand grasping the android’s shoulder while holding up her phone as a flashlight to search inside the vent tunnel.

“Wait!” Just as Connor was about to let her down, she made a surprised gasp, waving the LED light in her hand at the guy with similar deep brown eyes as hers.

After her feet touched the ground again, she carefully transferred her discovery into Connor’s palm, excited that she was finally of help.

What she didn’t know was that right now, in that moment, Connor was beginning to see her sparkling eyes overlap with a small pet of sorts, waiting for her reward.  

“Well done.”

The slightly cooler touch of synthetic skin brushed against her cheek, wiping away the dust that had gotten smudged on her face. Before she could react to what he had done, the two of DPD’s best partners were already walking out the door.

“Hey Connor, why do I get a feeling you’re doing something weird with her?” Hank casted a suspicious glance at the android.

“Was I?” The RK800 produced a smile that was definitively not of protocol.

…

Back at the station, the trio began organizing the evidence that was found. It must have been the fact that being away from a murder scene relaxes you, the girl felt much more at easy, and let out a yawn.

“Tired yet? It’s well past resting time. We should continue to work, but you can leave for now. We’ll see you tomorrow.” Connor took the files out of her hands and gestured that she could go.

“No, it’s well past my resting time too! I can’t do this overtime nonsense anymore, let me go home!” Hank tried to stand up from his chair but was instantly pushed back down.

“Lieutenant Anderson, case report is due tomorrow at 9 am, you should finish writing it before you leave.”

“Just let me go out and get a burger or something!”

“You consumed food two hours ago. That’s enough energy to support you. If you must leave this instant, I will have to use force.”

“Someone tell me why I am being attacked by this ridiculous plastic toy in my own precinct!”

The girl had already packed up, backing out of the precinct, trying not to laugh out loud while doing a mental search for near burger joints that were still open at this hour.

…

“Damn the report, damn overtime, those damn androids…”

It was 11pm when the raging man finally walked out of the station door, the young android that followed him looked sharp as ever.

“Aw…how come it’s always the young girl who knows to show the elderly some compassion anymore?” Hank walked up to his car, his annoyed expression from being forced to work overtime lessened.

“You don’t seem to dislike her?” As far as Connor could tell, the bad-tempered lieutenant wasn’t the kind who welcomes strangers into his life.

“How can you dislike a sweet young lady who brings you burgers and sodas? Do you think she would’ve offend you at the bar and then dump out your drink?” Hank knocked on the windshield with a notice, the android immediately saw the two brown paper bags stuck under the wipers, with the logo from that local burger joint around the corner and sticky notes on each bag that read, “for lieutenant Anderson” and “for Connor”. Hank reached for them, grabbing both bags for himself, but Connor was quicker to take his bag before stepping into the passenger seat.

“Hey, give that to me, androids can’t eat that.” Hank held his side of the door open with protest.

“Lieutenant Anderson, I do not recommended men of your age to consume two orders of high cholesterol food, it is bad for your health.” Connor didn’t even have to look at the man, his fingertips brushed over the girl’s faint handwriting on the note.

“Besides, it says here this is for me.”

Seeing the android had the bag clutched tight and wasn’t going to let go, all Hank could do was to wave his suspicion away, “fine, fine, androids have rights to private property anyways.” He rested one hand on the steering wheel and took the car out of the parking lot.


	3. A Fledgling Left Behind

A bedside alarm rang just as the morning sun spilt into the room through a crack in the curtains. She was curled up under the sheets when she woke up, pressed snooze, gathered the mess of her hair out of her face, and sat up spacing out. Yesterday was a more laboring day than what she was used to, by the time she returned home and fell on top of her pillows she passed out right away. At least now she’s alert and ready to go.

It was 7 in the morning, enough time to take a long shower and make breakfast.

She got up and toured her new apartment. Albeit the small space, it had all the necessary amenities in the kitchen and bathroom. The location wasn’t ideal, but it was as much as a small town publisher could afford to send its journalists with.

And so, the content little bird hummed around the kitchen, busying herself. She had bought some discount groceries on her way home last night, seeing them in the fridge made her hesitate a little. She ended up cooking more portions than she could eat herself.

…

She arrived at the precinct as Hank threw down his pen. He had an open file on the desk in front of him, it was the case report he had been working on since last night, his handwriting scrawled across the page in a mess, clearly revealing the writer had no intention of doing proper work.

“It is now 8:59, congratulations on your first time finishing a report when it’s due, lieutenant Anderson.” Connor clapped rather slowly and sarcastic.

“Mor...oops, morning, I made BLT sandwiches, you guys want any?” Before Hank’s face dropped completely, she stuffed the rest of her bread into her mouth, briskly opened the kraft paper bag, letting the aroma of the food escaping into the air.

“Ooh, looks good. Thanks for the burgers, by the way.” For someone who had been typing up reports under android supervision all morning and hadn’t had breakfast, Hank was very quickly distracted by the sandwiches. He took a large bite as the android started to speak, but the girl had already blocked his sight.

“Hey, Connor, want some?”

She actually just wanted him to shut up, seeing that he’s not particularly gifted at the art of socializing, and lieutenant Anderson’s mood directed affected her work in progress.

Connor glanced at the steamy food, simultaneously, a list of ingredients and nutrition appeared in his vision field. He doesn’t need food to provide energy, CyberLife also discourages androids from over-consuming such things.

“Thank you, I’ve already eaten.” He went with a much less honest and cold refusal.

“Right. I’ll have to invite you next time to try my cooking then, I’m actually not bad at it.” She set the bag down on Hank’s desk while he devoured his food, picked up the evidence bag next to it, inside was an LED light disk she found in the vents yesterday.

“The part belongs to a CH300 android, this model’s exterior is made in child form.” Connor seemed relaxed, he perched on the side of his desk, instead of taking the usual up right stance.

“Of course, only children can fit through somewhere so narrow.” She pinched her chin, deep in thought, a bit of bread crumb near the corner of her mouth caught Connor’s attention, but before he could remind her, an urgent message popped into his head. He stood up, yellow lights circling, and knocked on Hank’s desk, “they found the android child.”

…

When they arrived, they quickly discovered that this place was in the same neighborhood as the crime scene. Which was normal, considering android children were designed to be near exact copies of human children, minus a few dispensable human nuisances, which somewhat weakened their executive functions and intelligence.

“For fifteen hundred dollars, you can adopt a perfectly well-behaved little child. That’s what the ads told everyone,” she almost snickered. When androids became deviant, the so-called “perfect children” started showing troubled signs that only real kids had. They were eventually abandoned by their families; she had done a special report in the past on those broken android children, discarded on the streets in broad daylight, while people hurried by without casting a glance, “a bunch of irresponsible jerks.”

The android stole a glimpse of her. He’d never seen her reveal negative emotions in front of people, and it piqued his interest.

…

They waded through layers of police setup, at the center was a terrified boy, attempting to shrink himself into the corner of a garden. The rose vines that grew near the fence were almost think enough to cover him up entirely, his face and arms covered with scratches from the thorn, trickles of blue blood seeping through the cuts.

Hank looked around at the circle of armed police with disbelief, “why the hell did the DPD send all these people? What, is the kid a bomb or something?”

“They were right. His current self-destruction percentage is at 80, he’s practically a ticking bomb.” Connor also looked grim, negotiating with android children happened to fall under one of his few shortcomings.

“Hey! Can you guys back off, a little? Don’t crowd the place.”

“Sorry, lieutenant, I’m afraid we can’t do that,” one of the team captains responded apologetically, casting a somewhat meaningful glance to the side, where a stranger in a fancy suit was stationed in the distance.

“And who is that male peacock?” Hank asked, knowing the android have already scanned him for personal information.

“Sean Wilson, born September 23rd, 2004, no criminal records. He’s in the top 100 of Detroit’s richest man. He’s also the one in charge of this community…” Connor had hardly finished before the man’s high pitched screeching was heard over the distance, “…if you can’t solve this problem in the next fifteen minutes, I will see all you lot in court! Who do you think lives in this neighborhood…”

“Alright, I got it, rich pricks are afraid to die,” the lieutenant impatiently waved a hand to disregard the shouting.

“He looks awful, it must be traumatizing for him…” the girl, meanwhile, was worried about the android child.

“You got this?” Hank and Connor exchanged a quick look, the grown android straightened his tie and crossed the yellow tape.

“Hi, hello there, what’s your name?”

His friendliest smile was futile, as soon as he got close, the child’s stress level shot up, as if he possesses some extraordinary fear of the android in front of him. Connor, however, noticed that he kept looking forward to the left.

Where the girl stood.

“I feel…I feel like he’s looking at me,” she’d also picked up his glances, and didn’t hesitation to volunteer herself to Hank, “do you think I could try?”

“Do you think I’ve lost my mind? I’m not sending in an unarmed young girl with no expertise or training whatsoever, you technically work for me, so I’m responsible for your safety.” Despite his harsh tone, she felt Hank was trying to take care of her.

“She has a higher success rate than anyone here, Hank, believe me.” Upon returning, Connor made the proposal to his stubborn partner in her place one more time.

“We’re ordered to open fire and disable the android if the situation isn’t diffused in the next three minutes.” Conveniently, one of the special forces police spoke up while Hank was making up his mind.

“No! That’s against android rights, they can’t do that,” seeing snipers had gotten into position, the girl pleaded with panic.

“Nobody really cares about android rights in this dump,” Hank buried his face into his hands for a brief moment, turned around and sighed. “Fine, go.”

She immediately started for the frontline, but the android cut her off. He bent down slightly, and wiped the crumbs that were still on her face, making her look somewhat silly, and placed a micro communication device into her ear. A sense of disturbance escaped his eyes, “please make sure to stay safe.”

Connor held her arms with his hands and squeezed rather too tight for her comfort, his LED light spinning in a yellow circle.

Could he possibly be nervous?

She nodded and gave him a light pat on the hand, trying to comfort him with a smile.

…

By the time Connor went back to Hank, the expression on his face had faded away, leaving only the glowing yellow disk to expose his anxiety.

“You trust her already? You’ve known her for two days.” The aged cop peered at him, the corner of his mouth, hidden underneath all that gray, curved upwards.

“Three years ago, in that interrogation room, you had only known me for five hours and twenty eight minutes.” The android returned a snide remark, his eyes fixed on the girl’s back.


	4. Missing in the Rain

To be completely honest, she hadn’t the slightest idea how to negotiate.

Sirens that surrounded her was making people panic, sounds of guns cocking and loud, overlapping static from the radios were freaking her out. She tried to take deep breaths to calm herself, if she can’t even manage that, how was she supposed to calm anyone else?

“No need to panic. CyberLife’s best prototype is giving you tech assistance.” The young android’s voice appeared in her ear. She usually found him displeasing, but now his voice rose through all the chaos and chatter, strangely comforting her.

“First, slowly approach with caution.”

She composed herself and slowly began making her way toward the target. A little boy, curled up and trembling, stared at her as she approached him. Just when there was only four or five meters between them, he decided she was getting too close, got startled, and suddenly backed away.

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” She stopped in her track, squatted down so they were on the same eye level.

“He’s tired, and weak. Showing compassion will disarm his alertness.” Connor’s orders were purely procedural, it was easy to detect the expert negotiator’s logic in everything he said.

“You’re hurt, it’s painful, isn’t it? Come here, I can help you.” She was using her softest voice as she reached out to the android boy. Up close, he looked about eight or nine, his disturbed blue eyes filled with terror; dried leaves and grass blades lingered in his messy brown hair. He had dirt on his face, the white t-shirt he wore was also torn up.

It seemed that he had spent days in hiding, and it hadn’t been easy.

She had a younger brother of about the same age back at home. He was naughty like all boys, but they loved each other. The day she left for college, her baby brother, who always prided himself to being a tough guy, cried his eyes out.

The thought of her brother must’ve softened the look on her face. Even though the boy remained silent, his lowered arms and slightly relaxed eyes told her that he was beginning to calm down.

“His name is Noel Brown, an android child Allen Brown purchased ten years ago. Call his name, or his owner’s.” Connor’s voice immediately stepped in.

“So he’s supposed to be Allen Brown’s son?” She lowered her voice to reply.

“……” There seemed to be a brief moment of discourse on the other side, but soon calmed down.

“Yes.”

She almost thought she detected a sense of delightfulness masked under his mechanical voice.

“Are you Noel Brown?” She introduced herself first, before finally asking him. The boy bit his lip and nodded a slight nod.

“Were you Allen Brown’s son?”

His eyes lit up instantly.

“Dad?”

“His stress level is down, so is his self-destructive tendency. You may try to converse, see if he can tell you anything.”

She nodded and opened her arms for an embrace. “Hey, what do you say we treat these cuts, and find a place to rest, then we’ll go see your dad, sound good?”

Noel was hesitating, but finally nodded. He started to get up, but his leg was trapped by the thick rose vines that grew there. Unable to break free, he looked to her seeking help, panic in his eyes.

“It’s okay, I got you.” She stepped into the thorned bushes at once, even the pain of having her arms and calves cut didn’t stop her. She held the boy in her arms, her bare hands torn away the tangled vines, blood dripped from her palm, mixed with his blue thirium, disappearing into it.

“Everything will be fine, we made it.”

His tiny arms wrapped tighter around her neck, she felt something warm dampen her shirt. The girl patted his trembling back, trying to comfort him.

“Nice work, young lady.” Hank, upon arriving at the scene, looked impressed. The android, however, quietly stared at her forearm, the scratches left by the rose vines still seeped drops of blood.

“It’s just small cuts, it’s nothing.” Despite her stressing this over and over, Connor insisted that if not treated, she could attract at least thirty different diseases she had never even heard of, and bandaged her into a mummy.

“This is too much, Connor,” she sat on the edge of the open trunk, looking somewhat resigned at the android kneeling in front of her; he was still checking if he had accidentally missed a wound somewhere.

“Humans are fragile, you must be treated with care.”

He raised his gaze to look at her, long lashes casting a fanned shadow against the light, partially covering up those deep brown crystals in his eyes. He said it with such sincerity, as if he couldn’t bear to breathe.

Something had touched her heart then, light as a feather, fallen, quite without warning.

…

They ended up bringing the young witness back to the precinct, and then was faced with another puzzle: how to get vital information from a little boy.

In fact, they didn’t know if Noel had anything to do with the murder, whether he was a victim or the perpetrator.

“I know android children aren’t exactly like human children, but I don’t think they’re capable of killing someone, are they?” She looked through the one-way glass at the boy inside, who was drawing with some markers and paper.

“We don’t have enough evidence to rule him out, either. Lieutenant Anderson, thoughts?”

Connor looked at his partner, his hands pressed on the ledge of the control panel. Hank had been awfully quite until now, he sat with his fingers intertwined on his knees, a complicated expression on his face.

“Hank?” Connor raised his voice, the latter suddenly looked up as if jolted out of a nightmare, relaxed, and waved to dismiss him.

“Just, go do whatever it is you do, Connor.”

She stared after the android walking into the interrogation room, then looked back at the old man, who seemed to be lost in thought, focusing on the boy. She had so many question, but didn’t know who to ask.

…

No matter how many times Connor engaged, the boy wasn’t responsive to him. When he tried more forceful methods, Hank would immediately order him to stop. The investigation had gotten nowhere, a repressed anxiety started to build in the atmosphere.

“Lieutenant Anderson! Why?”

“I have my reasons.”

“Oh yes, sure, it’s always personal issues, isn’t it?”

The two had another falling out, and both ended up leaving the room, while the girl remained, as per usual. She wasn’t exactly expecting any breakthroughs, she just wanted to make sure the boy wasn’t being too stressed out being interrogated like this.

She sat across from Noel, who concentrated on his drawings. She smiled at the boy, took a piece of paper from the pile, and started folding. After a while, he stopped drawing and was drawn to the piece of paper flipping between her fingers.

“Well…”

As she put the finished product down, she caught his curious eyes staring.

“ribbit, ribbit,” the little origami frog jumped up and down on the interrogation table, his attention was entirely focused on this simple attraction.

“Do you want it? You can have it.” She pressed on it hard, the frog jumped forward, landing in front of Noel. His small, childish hands only hesitated for a second before cupping it in his palm, smiling for the first time.

“Thank you.” Was the first thing he whispered to anyone since he got here.

“Of course.” She smiled back.

The boy then passed her the drawing he had been working on all this time. There was a black cube in the center of the page, with buttons and floor numbers on top, it was surely an elevator.

“Wow, nicely done. You have an elevator like this at home, don’t you? With two floors.” It reminded her of Hank complaining about it the other day and made her want to chuckle.

“It goes down though…”

“Lady, time’s up. You gotta go. Mr. Sean Wilson is waiting for you outside.”

Noel’s words were lost to her as the officer prompted her to leave, she stood up, wondering why a real estate agent could possibly want with her, failing to notice that Noel, who saw the fancily dressed man through the door, was completely horrified by the sight of him.

…

“Hi, Mr. Wilson?”

She met him out in the hall, and greeted the man who dressed more playboy than real estate agent.

“Miss newspaper journalist, hi,” Sean Wilson was visibly sizing her up, his gaze made her uncomfortable, however, she hid it well.

“I saw you and that android boy the other day, you did our community a great favor, very nicely done.

“Allen was a dear friend, that…son, of his, I know him quite well too. But he didn’t seem to want to talk, being too frightened and all. God, to think it’s an android behaving that way, technology has surely advanced.” He shrugged dramatically, sounding genuinely incredulous.

“Did you want to see me for something?” She frowned slightly.

“Oh, I was here to see Noel, actually, make sure he’s ok. I see you and him are getting along well, did he say something to you? Well, if there’s anything he needs, as a close friend of his father, I’d be more than happy to provide.” He took out a handkerchief, she was able to see through him and seeing the overwhelming hypocrisy coming from the man was more than upsetting to her.

“He hadn’t been talking much. Just drawing.” She wanted to end this conversation as soon as possible.

“Ah, well. I’ll get going then, there’s a meeting coming up this afternoon.” As soon as she finished, his face instantly went from sorrow to a cold indifference.

His attitude shift was so ridiculously blatant that she couldn’t help sounding sarcastic, “I can’t imagine someone as busy as you would come to the station for an android, was there something else you wanted?”

“Be careful what you say around here, young lady,” Sean Wilson took the sunglasses off his collar to put it on, “my blood isn’t a disgusting blue.”

…

Since then, days had passed, the interrogation was still getting nowhere, unlike Hank and Connor’s relationship, which had gotten worse continuously, until today when they finally snapped.

“If you continue to refuse, I will have no choice but to read your memory.”

Noel remained unresponsive to Connor’s threat, he only stared at him.

“Fine. That was your last chance.”

His LED light flashed yellow, then turned an alarming color. Connor grabbed the boy by his wrist, ignoring his futile struggling, android’s synthetic skin split open to reveal a white, mechanic shell, ready to make contact. Just as his hand reached out, Hank stepped in and pulled him away.

 “Connor, that’s enough!” He barked at the stumbling android.

“Lieutenant Anderson, even androids with self-awareness are unlike human children. If I don’t keep pressuring him, he’ll never reveal anything useful…” he made another attempt to grab the boy, but was pushed back once again.

“I said, that, is, enough.” Hank stepped in front of Noel, spitting words through his teeth.

“Lieutenant, I think your personal problem has gone on for too long, it’s beginning to interfere with our working progress.” Connor’s LED light was flashing a dangerous red.

“You plastic bastard…”

She stood by the door, panicking and not sure what to do as tension escalated. She tried to speak up, to intervene, but no one listened. Just as a fight was about to break out, she gritted her teeth and hurled herself between the two of them. Without a doubt, she blocked most of a push and got herself slammed quite hard into a corner of the table.

“Ah…” she drew a sharp breath, a stabbing pain in her back, luckily, her “self sacrifice” was enough to somewhat divert the guys’ attention. Connor came over to her first, kneeling down to check her condition, while Hank stood back looking apologetic. Hank ended up taking Noel out of the interrogation room, the android boy kept looking back at her sitting on the floor.

“I’m sorry,” Connor helped her sit up, “Hank is, too. Forgive him for being bad at showing it.” He briefly glanced at the door and added.

“That’s ok.” She was rubbing her back, picturing how large a bruise it had left.

The young android went quiet, and so did she. For a while, they both just sat in the interrogation room, speechless.

She stared at the android’s blanking expression, wondering what was on his mind, a yellow circle of light kept spinning around, signifying that this piece of electric machine too had his own thoughts.    

It couldn’t go on like this. Her deadline was next weekend, what was she supposed to write? Detroit: become unfriended?

She sighed, breaking the silence, “it’s getting late, do you mind walking me home?”

…

It seemed that whenever she’s in an awful mood, Detroit rains. Or it was the other way around, since she hadn’t seen a clear day since she arrived here.  

The girl opened her umbrella, and Connor naturally took it from her hands as they both walked, side by side, into the rain.

Cyberlife’s ads were splashed everywhere, the advanced technology corporation’s wealth could rival a small country, not an easy target to bring down. The debaucherous streets were filled with dangerous temptations; signs of opposing stances overlapped each other; the homeless increasing, as well as a rise in android criminal gangs.

It was a confusing time in history.

She turned her head slightly, enough to peek at the android’s handsome profile.

What was he thinking just now?

“I know right now is not a good time, but, if you don’t mind me asking, what was lieutenant Anderson’s personal problem…?” She finally decided to cut straight to the chase.

“His son passed away years ago, due to a medical accident. The surgeon, human, was on Red Ice, and the android miscalculated.” He was choosing his words carefully, “Noel was about the same age, and looked a lot like his son.”

“But it wasn’t his fault.” Connor explained, puzzled, “humans pay too much attention to what’s in the past.”

“That’s…that’s because the past is important to them.” She was thrown off by his observation.

“Isn’t the present more so? What’s truly more important to humans?”

She found herself incapable to produce a satisfying answer to any of his questions.

She couldn’t.

“Sorry, I’m just…must be a system fault. I’m confused.”

Connor turned to face her, a sense of disturbance in his eyes.

“CyberLife made me to be just a machine, but I have failed that task. Hank wanted me to be human, I have let him down as well. My system has been disrupted, corrupted with self-awareness and emotions I don’t seem to understand. I don’t know who I’m supposed to be.”

He had the umbrella completely tilting to her side, so that the pouring rain surrounded himself, hitting his skin, his suits, splashing everywhere. Colored neon lights reflected in his glassy eyes; he blinked at a calming rate, long lashes fanning up and down, his not-so-humanlike stance plus the bright yellow circle of light on his temple all seemed so unnatural, surreal.

All that, and she still couldn’t avoid the question that seemed to have come from his soul, hidden deep within his mechanic exterior.

“Connor,”

She grabbed his hand, the one holding the umbrella, and pushed it back toward him, at the same time, bringing the two of them in closer. When she looked up to him, their breathes melted together. His trembling lashes were dripping wet, and a drop of rain fell right under her eye, trickling down her face like a tear.

“It’s never who you’re supposed to be. It’s who you want to be.”

Thousands of years in human history, mankind have sought after the one question that would answer everything about themselves, and yet, right here, right now, she suddenly realized that there was nothing she could give, no advise was suitable for this new life form that they had created.

She felt immensely sorry, so she opened her arms and hugged the android tight.

Icy rainwater had soaked his suit, and was seeping into her dress. She heard no heartbeat, no pulse; she felt no warmth underneath his skin. But his stiff body softened, he lowered his head to rest it on her shoulder, and hugged her back.

…

The rest of the walk continued in silence, until they reached her apartment. Dim yellow lights engulfed them, Connor frowned at the water stains on her clothes.

“Sorry for getting your dress wet. You should change out of them, you could catch a cold.”

“Thanks, yeah, I will.” She smiled at him, climbed a few steps, then looked back, “good night, Connor.”

The young android blinked at her, revealing naturally a human smile, “good night.”

…

It was on his way back that Connor suddenly realized he still had the girl’s umbrella.

This mistake was highly unlikely, as his memory units and response programs were always extremely accurate.

There was an 82.5% chance of rain the next day, so he decided he should return the umbrella right away.

He had climbed the front steps and walked into the hallway leading to her room when he detected something strange. The door of her apartment was slightly ajar, he could see the straps on her backpack through the crack.

When Connor approached as quietly as possible, and pushed the door wide open, he found himself standing amid a mess of scattered manuscripts and her jacket on the floor.

But the girl, who was supposed to have heard him and rushed out, wasn’t there at all.


	5. Deep Slumber

In another world, she should’ve invited Connor for a coffee.

Instead, she was thrown into the back of a car; the stiff, unyielding cushions banged her head quite badly, for a moment, all there was left in her mind was deafening regret. Her hands were tied behind her back, her mouth stuffed, the rain had drenched her all over, her clothes sticking uncomfortably to her wet skin.

A perfect storm for a perfect kidnapping, really. She thought sarcastically, struggling to look up and observe her surroundings. She was met with a pair of familiar, equally terrified eyes——the android boy, who was supposed to be in a cell at the police station, was curled up on the floor, hiding in the space between the backseat and the driver’s seat.

“Mm?!” She tried to make a sound, but all she managed to produce were unintelligible syllables, so she did her best to inch forward to reach Noel, just as the car suddenly made a hard turn and threw her against the door on the far end. The back of her head felt numbly painful, she looked up and saw a man in the driver’s seat, and vaguely remembered he was the android guard at the crime scene earlier who refused to let Hank by. His LED lights were flashing red, and he seemed unnerved.

The girl managed to get up close to the window so she could look into the left side-view mirror, but all she saw was darkness, where she heard vague sounds of an old car engine coming from behind them. They apparently passed a security gate of some sort, seconds later, she heard the automatic arm being hit and breaking off. Guess that’s another report lieutenant Anderson will have to write up later.

While she couldn’t identify the pursuer, she had to believe it was someone who had noticed she was missing. It had to be.

Rain was hitting the car window hard, as she was driven towards the dark unknown, a primal fear was brewing within her. She was terrified. Terrified of her eventual fate, her brutal end, an unavoidable possibility.

Something cold touched her skin. The girl looked down and realized she had forgotten about Noel. The android boy rested his face upon her arm, his blue eyes filled with worry.

It’s alright, don’t be afraid.

She forced herself to calm down so she could calm him, as they cuddled together in the darkness and the raging rain, forehead against forehead, waiting, for whatever lied ahead.

…

“Fuck! Did you really learn how to drive a car?”

The old man’s grey curls was thrown into a mess by the car’s consecutive hard breaks, he had to swallow his urge to puke before he could curse out loud.

“I’m very sorry, lieutenant Anderson, CyberLife didn’t predict that gas fueled cars would still in use by year 2041. I don’t have the corresponding modules to drive it, however, I had downloaded a crash course earlier and in just a few more minutes, I would be proficient.” The android’s grasp on the wheel was stiff, as he spun the car into another acute turn.

“That’s it, get off! Get out and let me drive it.”

“That would be counterproductive, lieutenant, I suggest you focus on decoding Noel’s drawings.”

“For god’s sake, I can barely not puke without looking at these papers…”

Hank made a grab for the wheel, only to be blocked, quite effortlessly, by the android. He had always suspected Connor to be capable of seeking revenge, especially after the past few days. Even though they had resumed their day-to-day mode of operation the second that phone call came in, but the android’s grim mood couldn’t be any more apparent.

It was regret; it was frustration; it was anxiety. Just like he was the day he waited outside the ER.

He rubbed his forehead, forcing his eyes to focus on the drawings. Most of them were pictures of father and son playing, but the fifth drawing was different. It was a cube, shaded black in the center of the page, a line straight down the middle with buttons on one side; the top of the cube had the number “-1” written in crooked childish handwriting.

“Isn’t that the dumb elevator in their house?” Hank turned the paper upside down a few times, examining it suspiciously.

“It appears so. I think the elevator serves more than the two floors in their home. There must be a sub-level underneath.” The android, having by now mastered the art of driving stick, stepped hard on the gas, and they crashed through the security arm entering the gate.

“Fuck. More reports.” Hank desperately cursed.

…

Noel and the girl dangled in the hands of men as they were taken into the mansion. Under weak lighting they saw it was still a mess inside, the body, obviously, had been taken away, Noel stared at where his father’s corpse used to be as they made their way past. She felt a tremendous sadness along with rage, but knowing that there was nothing she could do, she lowered her head and tried to conserve a little energy.

When they were finally being put down, a pair of pointy, bejeweled dress shoes entered her vision field, “miss reporter, we meet again.”

She recognized the voice and the extravaganza without looking up, “Sean Wilson,” she tried to hide the boy behind her, staring at him with intense hostility.

She had actually thought of this after their last meeting, but it was only a suspicion on her part, reality, however, still came as a shock.

After the last time, she did some research on Sean Wilson. As it turned out, he was indeed a close friend; he was college friends with Allen Brown, it had since been two decades, the two of them frequently saw each other, their companies were in a partnership, even the house Allen owned was on one of Sean’s best properties. When Sean was in a financial crisis few years back, Allen had aided him generously.

What could possibly turn a good friend into a murder suspect?

“I know, I know, you have questions, but before that…” the elevator doors gradually opened after a ding, Wilson made a gesture, “ladies first.”

She didn’t move, only stared at him alarmingly.

Wilson, eager to get on with himself, nodded at one of his men.

“Don’t forget, when this is over…” an android aimed his gun on her back, forcing her into the elevator.

“Shut up, I know what I said.” Wilson dismissed him, and once they were all inside the compartment, he turned to Noel, “you know what to do, kid.”

He untied Noel’s hands and pushed him towards the control panel. As the android’s child-sized palm pressed against the white, blank panel, he muttered a word and the elevator jolted, paused, then began to slowly descend to an underground level that didn’t exist on the control panel.

…

Transparent elevator doors opened with a ding in front of the men who arrived shortly after.

“Ok…so, how d…how do we go down?” Hank was hunched over with his hands on his knees, breathing hard from trying to keep up with his tireless android partner.

Connor, meanwhile, observed the elevator. This transparent cube was designed to be simplistic, nothing but an up button and a screen. However, an android can scan and discover hidden components, like a hand print activated control panel and a needle-sized microphone. He tried several phrases, nothing happened.

“Why do you keep mumbling?” Hank went into the elevator looking around, “what was that guy thinking, building a secret dungeon in the same home his kid lives in?”

“His dad.” He exclaimed to the surprise of his partner.

“What?”

“It’s his dad,” it had occurred to the android.

“What? Connor, why are you saying that all of a sudden? I’m…” Hank seemed uneasy, unlike his usual self, he scratched his graying hair and stuttered.

“Daddy.” A youthful, childish voice echoed within the elevator, the transparent cube began to shake, and soon descended.

Hank looked over at the android, who had resumed his usual cold and distant demeanor.

“What was that, lieutenant Anderson?”

“Nothing.”

…

It wasn’t as spacious as they had thought, straight out of the elevator they were stopped by a huge, heavy set of doors. Footprints leading into it indicated whoever they were chased went through here.

Hank had his try first, the door didn’t move an inch, it was made with an odd metallic material, reflecting cool lights. Connor walked up and examined a mechanical contraption next to the door, whoever designed it must’ve spent a fortune, as the lock clearly was trying to keep out androids, decoding it would take a while.

It was right at that moment that they heard a loud gunshot.

…

The android dropped to the ground, blue blood splashing everywhere. She was trembling, but still tried to keep the boy behind her from witnessing the scene.

“I don’t negotiate with plastic dogs.” Wilson growled at the pile of broken machine, disgusted. He shook the gun in his hand and started walking towards the girl and the android boy, “rights, peace, equality, coexistence, it’s all a big joke. What’s even funnier, was your stubborn daddy, who was all about that kind of crap.”

Wilson glared past her, at the boy who was trying to hide himself, “‘oh, poor Sean, we could’ve had a better future.’ You know what, his biggest mistake, was investing in you. He kept everything here, top-secret company files, his will, everything is here, where only you had access to.”

Amidst all the crazed rambling, the android boy eyed her a signal, crawled behind her and untied her hands.

“So this last passcode, I’m afraid, you’d have to open it for me.” Wilson suddenly turned on them, the tip of his gun pushed against her forehead, “otherwise you might just have to watch her die in your name, just like the day you watched your father die, hiding in that vent.”

Noel hesitated. He started walking under Wilson’s instruction, and stopped in front of the safe to feel its locks, “this doesn’t look right,” finally, he turned around and beckoned the nervous man.

Wilson casted a suspicious glance, poked the girl’s head with his gun to make her move along. They made it half way to the safe, when the girl suddenly slapped the gun away and tried to tackle him. The man apparently was prepared for this moment, he pushed her away, but Noel had already gotten to him, dragging him down by his leg. The man cursed and opened fired, gunshots aimed at the android boy’s core body. A few tries later, seeing that he still couldn’t get out of the android’s hold, Wilson aimed for the arms. As blue blood splattered all over the floor, the android’s arm was torn from his body. Wilson spat on him with hatred and kicked the boy off.

The girl saw this, struggled to get up, made her way over and took what was left of Noel into her arms.

Blue blood gushed from his wounds, most of his symbiotic skin had vanished, revealing the damaged mechanical shell. His biological components had been mostly destroyed, and his system would soon be shut down.

“I just…I want to be…with daddy…”

Noel’s face twitched, his blue eyes filled with an innocent despair.

“You will, I promise you, you’ll be with him,” she kissed his forehead softly, holding back tears, while behind her, she heard a gun being cocked.

…

The string of gunshots had pushed them to a new height of anxiety. As the lock beeped and turned green, Connor opened his mouth to call Hank over, only to have a gun being tossed at him, while his partner was already in position.

“Hey, you’re writing the report for this one.”

It’s this kind of chemistry that no one else understood that deemed them partners.

…

As the double door slowly backed into their respective walls, the android, who scanned the room at the first chance possible, fired a precise shot that was only meant to disable before anyone in the room could realize what had happened.

Connor raced over and kicked the gun out of Wilson’s hand, with one knee he pinned Wilson on the ground and cuffed him, all within a mere twenty seconds.

“Sean Wilson, you are under arrest for kidnapping and abetting murder.” He kept his eyes on Wilson like an eagle, a monotone, mechanical voice announced to Wilson his rights. The man’s shoulder was nearly dislocated from the android’s unusual brutal strength.

“Connor, get up.” Hank put a hand on his back, the android’s flashing red circle slowly turned yellow.

…

Connor left them and headed to the other side of the room, where the girl sat, on the floor, cold, white lights shined from above, blue blood dying her dress a deep indigo. The CH300 android child in her arms had stopped functioning due to severe core damage, but she held him still, so still that she was afraid to breathe, as if the child was just asleep, and any slight movement would disturb his slumber.

A shadow loomed over her, the girl looked up.

Connor knelt in front of her, wiping off drops of blue from her cheek, her eyelashes quivered, and a drop of clear liquid fell onto the boy’s closed eyelid.

As if woken from a trance by the tear, she shuddered, all of a sudden her blood started flowing, air squeezed out of her lungs, gagging in her throat, tears streaming down her face like the never-ending Detroit rain.

She leaned against the android’s shoulder and started crying uncontrollably.


	6. New Home and a Funeral

She realized it was a dream when she saw the woman smiling at her. Regardless, it felt real.

The soft hair on her pale skin, her light freckles, a tiny mole on her left eyebrow, her eyes glimmering, she could see it all. She was so close, the woman’s hair, long, curled, rust red, nearly fell on her.

“Mona,”

Her emerald eyes reflected pain, vulnerable to her touch as the girl reached out to her, only that right before she touched her, a broken, robotic arm replaced human flesh, the woman’s visage turned bitter and shattered, electric components and wires were exposed from what was left of her skull, the only eyeball that remained stared at her with resentment, “why? Why!” Her faltering voice, vaguely muttering the girl’s name, stung her.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

Coldness invaded her limbs, washing over her, drowning her in an icy ocean. She woke up, shaking, right before she lost her breath.

They were driving on a bumpy dirt road, surprisingly, there lacked the usual heavy metal music on the radio. It was pitch black outside and still raining.

She had been helping them with the aftermath at the station, it was a few hours till dawn, Hank and Connor decided to take her home for a nap,

“Are you feeling alright?” A voices sounded from above.

She looked up, soft fabric brushed against her cheek. The android, who usually took the passenger seat up front, was sitting beside her, his hands resting on his knees, and she was clinging to his side, her head against his shoulder, his suit jacket became her blanket.

“Sorry…” she tried to sit up, when a numbing pain shot through her head.

“You can lie back if you want. We’re quite good at maintaining position.”

“Thanks…” she didn’t try to refuse this time.

“You seemed to be having a brief nightmare just now.”

She pursed her lips and nodded slightly, suddenly remembering something, “do androids dream of electric sheep?” She looked up at him.

“Are you talking about the classic science fiction book written by Philip K. Dick in 1968?” His search results came back.

“No, just wondering,” she didn’t seem to care about the answer; her eyelids dropped lower as her normal energetic self diminished, like a butterfly resting on a grass blade during a rain storm. Connor thought about it for a while, gave up, and decided to stay quiet.

“Traffic is slow when it rains like this, it’ll be at least twenty more minutes before we reach your apartment. You seem tired still, sleep more.”

He felt the girl nod off like a small animal ready to hibernate, she rubbed her face on his arm, muttering soft sounds, half asleep, “lieutenant Anderson…”

The man in the driver’s seat looked back through the rear view mirror.

“Is it ok if I just…stay on your couch for the night?”

…

They arrived at Hank’s place at roughly 3 am, a large St. Bernard welcomed them with a slow-wagging tail.

“His name is Sumo.” Connor beat Hank to it, so the latter merely rolled his eyes and went on with his business.

“Hello, Sumo,” she knelt down and petted the docile animal’s head. She was always fond of dogs, the farm back at home used to breed them. Sumo was glad to see a new guest, he sniffed around and wagged his tail happily around her.

“So, um, you can take a shower if you want. And leave your clothes in the dryer. I have some old t-shirts that’s never been worn…let me look for them.”

Hank went into the bedroom, rummaging through his closet, while she stood up and looked around the house, which reeked of unhappy bachelor energy.

“This place used to be worse a few years ago, at least he doesn’t have liquor bottles and revolvers with only one bullet in them lying around anymore.” Connor explained apologetically.

“It’s perfectly fine here, I was the one who asked him to take me in.” The girl wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her exposed skin. Everything that had happened tonight seemed like a nightmare from which she’ll never wake up, and she couldn’t bear being alone with herself even for just one second.

“Thanks, for everything.”

The android took the jacket she handed over, and the girl smiled and went into the bathroom. He stood there for a while after she left, the fabric of his coat was still warm from her touch, reminding him of how her warm body leaned against his shoulder.

…

By the time she tidied up, Hank had found her an oversized t-shirt from the bottom of some drawer. She wore it sitting on the couch with a thick blanket, with Sumo lying on the floor by her feet.

“You sure this is ok? We can switch places.” Hank started for the hundredth time.

“This is perfect, I sleep like this all the time at home. Plus, Sumo is here.” She patted the beast behind the ear, in exchange she heard a comfortable grunt.

“Alright, fine, as long as you’re good.” Hank glanced at the android, still where he left him, “and you just…stay there I guess.”

“Yes, sir. And goodn…” his words were cut off by a slam of the door.

Connor was used getting this kind of treatment from Hank, he turned to ask the girl, “Should I turn off the lights?”

“Please. Thank you.”

After it had gone dark and quiet for a while, the girl’s hesitating voice broke the silence, “Connor?”

“Yes? What can I do for you?” His faint LED light lit up in the dark.

“Can you just, sit over here instead? It’s kind of creepy…for you to just stand there.”

Connor tilted his head and shuffled over. He got down next to Sumo, and sat with his arms hugging his knees.

“No, I meant…never mind,” she retracted the hand that had been pointing to a chair nearby under her blanket. Her eyes had acquainted to the darkness and can see the back of the android’s head in front of the couch. He smelt of nothing and had no body heat, she tried to listen for any kinds of mechanical noise, but there were none.

Something seemed familiar, yet vaguely different. She stared at his light blue LED circle until her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, “sweet dreams, Connor…”

…

He can feel her breathing gradually slowed and peaceful. He wanted to turned around to check on her, but changed his mind halfway, in fear of disturbing her in her sleep, and turned back as careful as he could.

Connor stared into the darkness, petted Sumo, who was also deep asleep, and finally, he put himself in sleep mode as well.

He immediately entered a strange space. It was unlike any other time when his consciousness would simply shut down, ever since Amanda and the zen garden were gone, Connor hadn’t been inside one of these virtual locations built by a graphic interface.

This time, he didn’t walk into a view, just a plain whiteness. Another platform floated before him, someone familiar stood at the center. Why is she here? He started walking, as he closed in, he soon discovered that the platforms weren’t connected, and no matter how many times he calls their name, his voice couldn’t get across.

He stood at the edge of his platform and watched as the girl stood there, alone, crying, and smiling, and lost, and disturbed…

Connor couldn’t tell if this was a dream. She wasn’t a preset program in his brain, she couldn’t possibly be here.

Eventually, he gave up and simply watched her with intensity.

If this was a dream, it wasn’t necessarily a bad one.

…

Hank woke up to the alarm clock reading a “10:00 AM”. He hit himself a few times to make sure he wasn’t still dreaming.

No android calling him incessantly; no android breaking his window for the seventy-ninth time; he was neither soaked in a bathtub of ice water, nor waking up inside a moving police car still wearing pajamas and slippers. Christ, was he in heaven?

And the phone rang just in time. He answered it by complimenting his partner for his extraordinarily well behavior today, only to discover it wasn’t his android who called.

“Well, we haven’t seen each other for the longest time and the first thing you do is hand me a trouble of a young lady…no, no, she didn’t get in too many troubles…last night was a close one, I know…what? You want her to stay with me? Well, I…” he had gotten out of bed, and was walking into the living room, only to find it already empty. Blankets were folded and stacked in the corner of the couch, trash cans were emptied, Sumo’s food and water bowls were filled, and a delicious aroma were coming from the kitchen.

He discovered two pieces of warm toast on a white china plate, a small portion of butter, one egg, and a note underneath it: “dear lieutenant Anderson, Connor and I are headed to the station early. There wasn’t much in your fridge, but I did my best. Hope you have a nice morning, ” she had signed it with a crooked smiley face, the way she always did as a naïve country girl.

Hank took a deep breath and buried his face in his palms, “I mean, who could say no to such a sweet young lady?”

…

It took a good while and most of the help at the station to wrap up the case. Hank had cursed his way through roughly ten reports, Connor had uploaded all the data, and the girl had finally submitted her first article.

The news of Sean Wilson’s life sentence verdict came with an invitation to the Browns’ funeral.

…

A light drizzle draped over a cold Sunday morning at the cemetery. If it hadn’t been raining, she would’ve suspected something very wrong had happened to Detroit.

The girl wore a black gown and a grey jacket, she distanced herself from the crowd, with no umbrella in hand, and no intention to include herself in the small service. As the casket was lowered into the ground, she knew the brown-haired child and his beloved father were resting peacefully within it.

Allen was never married, and had few intimate relationships, she had met his distant relatives before the service and tried to talk to them about Noel, in hope to fulfill his last wish to be buried together with his dad. To her surprise, they quietly accepted the suggestion.

Connor had mentioned something about possibly fixing Noel, but that would mean wiping clean his memories.

In the end, Hank decided not to make an official request, and declared the android child officially “deceased”.

…

She had ended up moving in with Hank a few days ago, the financially conservative editor in chief had said something about keeping herself safe, but she detected a sense of desperation to cut down her fundings.

When Hank opened the door at the end of the hallway, he seemed rarely determined.

It had every component of a little boy’s room; posters of spaceships and cars on the wall, robot toys scattered near a telescope stand; most things stayed the way they were, frozen in time, as if the kid had just gone outside to play, and would be home in a few hours.

“I made up the bed, as for the other stuff…” hank rubbed his nose, then his face, and just ended up staring at the room in silence, the redness in his eyes barely detectable.

“Lieutenant Anderson, it’s better if I just…” she had brought her suitcase, but was hesitating now and thinking she could rent a place nearby with her own money.

“No, Connor was right, these personal issues have bothered me for too long.” The elder man patted her on the shoulder, lightly shoved her towards the room, and left her to be alone, “what’s past is past.”

…

What’s past is past. She thought of this and suddenly felt powerless.

What had happened during college had became monsters lurking in the dark, waiting for a chance to prance out and terrorize her, reminding her over and over, that the tragedy they suffered had been caused by her stupidity and self-righteousness.

If she had never taught her in the first place, things would’ve been different.

The girl closed her eyes, reluctant to dwell on the matter further. A shade came over her and blocked the drizzling rain from falling; the android had somehow appeared and was standing over her, “lieutenant Anderson said I’d find you here.”

“Well, I just wanted to, you know, see the kid one last time.”

Neither of them talked after that, the android stayed with her in silence as the funeral crowd dispersed, leaving just the tombstone and bouquets of white daisies in the cold wind.

“It’d be cold there, wouldn’t it…” she muttered to herself, the tip of her nose had turned red, her throat stuffed, “Connor, do you remember when you used to ask why humans are so hung up on the past? I think…it’s because while we feared death, what we feared more was forgetting.”

The android looked at her ambiguously, his expression clearly proved he was trying to analyze her emotions, but he threw some words together and blurted them out before the analysis results came back, “as of now, my memory has saved one thousand five hundred sixty seven pieces of information about you, and the number is growing. Even if my mechanics cease to function, they would still be in here. Unless I was forced to wipe my memory clean, which I will try to prevent from happening…which, I mean,”

I will always remember you, even dream of you.

They were the most ordinary words, yet he couldn’t manage to say them out loud.

“Androids don’t dream of electronic sheep, at least I don’t,” he said, at last, before his system program could overload.

The girl watched as he stuttered and struggled, and started to laugh, all at once, shaking shoulders and covered-up face, tears, rolling down the sides of her cheeks like falling pearls.

Connor didn’t know what to do. He reached out to wipe them, and completely out of habit, tasted the liquid between his finger tips.

It was a colorless weak acid, 98.2% water, traces of inorganic salt, protein, leptin, immunoglobulin A, and other substances.

The bitterness that he tasted, however, wasn’t from anything remotely chemical.

Perhaps he should do something.

The long-handled, black umbrella was thrown away, its owner’s hands freed up to welcome the human girl into an embrace.

It was the best alternative his analytic system could offer.

…

You weren’t in the rigid tombs, you are here, in my brain, in my heart.


	7. A Light for the Revolutionary

Detroit isn’t always first degree murder everyday. Most of the time, androids and humans compromise each other and it is just barely enough to keep society from crumbling into disorderly chaos.

The fact that the past few days had been uneventful made her feel like she was back at home, hundreds of miles away. If anything was different, it’d be the vehicles zooming past on the street outside waking her up in the morning instead of birds or alarms or her hopes and dreams for the future. And occasionally it was something else.

With a low growl and whine, she felt a warm wetness on her cheeks, and tried to slap whatever’s making her itch away with her eyes still closed.

She then heard the android’s hushed calling. “Hey, sumo! Come on, good boy, come here.”

Her hands were covering her face, which didn’t stop the warm wetness from spreading all over, clearly the android failed in whatever he was using to lure the dog away. In the end she gave up and opened her eyes, and saw a brown-and-white furry head over her bed; the St. Bernard stared at her with droopy eyes, his tail wagging with excitement. Behind the animal, Connor was on the other side of the door, and she saw him holding a chew bone through a crack in the door, looking defeated.

“Thanks for waking me up, Sumo, but I seem to remember the door was closed last night.” She yawned and sat up, her white silk nightgown glistening in the light of morning, a thin strap on her shoulder fell down her arm. As she got up, she petted the large animal on the head, gliding across the room and swiftly pulling open the door to squeeze past the android out into the small hallway, but Connor took a rather dramatic step backwards. “Morning.” He gave her a standard, professional smile, avoiding eye contact and smiling at the wallpaper behind her.

“Morning, Connor.” She gave him a suspicious look and went into the bathroom, failing to notice the android’s LED lights flashing a nervous yellow.

…

Connor living here wasn’t much of a hassle, really.

Androids used to be a household appliance that shared the same living space with humans, they never seemed to need the privacy of a bedroom or anything else; they just occupied space like a fridge or television or any other appliances. In post-revolutionary times, android rights to private property has been made an agenda, even though it was still in the preliminaries like fair salaries and such. It’d be a while before they could own a private house.

What really surprised her was the partnership between Hank and Connor, which seemed impossible at the precinct, but oddly harmonious at Hank’s place.

Which is a good thing, as she had been preparing to breakup fights and cleanup messes from fights.

After she washed and dressed herself, the girl walked into the living room to see her hard working paying off.

All the trash had been cleaned out, the floor spotless, magazines and CDs organized; the once heavy curtain had been replaced with two layers, leaving the silky inner curtain closed during the day still allowed sunlight into the house. With Hank’s silent permission, she had been slowly but surely tidying up this house of sorrow and regret, trying not to bring too many changes yet making it more home-like.

People don’t forget, they move on.

Her scan around the room came to a stopping point on the shelf, where a photo frame used to be covered now stood out as the centerpiece, a boy who resembles a young Hank stares back at her in the photo.

You would like this better too, wouldn’t you? She smiled at it.

She had went to the vet and got formula dog food for Sumo, which she poured a measured proportion into his bowl. Sumo has been with Hank for almost a decade, which is quite a long time for dogs, and she thought that as much as Hank dislikes showing emotion, he’d probably want his puppy to be around longer, healthy and strong.

It was the weekend, and she thought she could cook a big breakfast for the guys, glad, when she opened the refrigerator door to see it full of supplies.

“For the love of God…can’t you just let me have one morning…it’s the weekend! I will throw you out the window, you crap excuse of an alarm clock!”

“Morning, Hank.” She smiled at those two coming into the dining room. Not so long ago, lieutenant Anderson had told her, while scratching the back of his neck, that she didn’t need to be so formal when they’re not at the precinct, so she started calling him by his first name.

She had altogether stopped freaking out and trying to intercept whenever they fought over things, as it does happen almost everyday, and she had gotten used to handling them with poise and calamity. It was a unique way for the boys to bond.

“Morning. Just holler if you need me for anything there.” Hank pulled out a chair at the dining table, sat down, took out his portable player and started watching yesterday’s recorded game.

“Hank, I should suggest that you—” Connor sat down next to him, obviously having much more to say, but not before Hank glared at him to shut him up, along with a brief “call me lieutenant Anderson.”

…

After the somewhat rowdy breakfast, she and Connor said bye to Hank and took a bus downtown.

It wasn’t a work day, but they still had work to do. After the death of Allen Brown, a rather large sum of his fortune was left over. The will that was discovered in his basement indicated that in the case of his death, most of that money would go to his son, Noel. But the pessimistic father seemed to have foresaw the possibility of a tragedy, and added another clause, if Noel was ever in no condition to physically receive the fortune, all of it would be donated to Jericho to support android children’s rights.

She didn’t know much about Markus, just that he was Mona’s idol.

Ever since the televised live speech that shocked the world, this revolutionary android leader started appearing on the news everywhere. When the librarian would let her in during the middle of the night, she used to always tell her about the handsome rebel.

Only if she knew that one day she could meet him face to face, even a woman as reserved as her would be excited like a little girl.

Wind rustled through the blue flag on top the skyscraper, she brushed her hair behind her ear, and hurried to catch up with the determined android as they both entered the ground floor lobby.

 The cyber civil rights organization’s HQ is now stationed at the center of downtown Detroit. From the outside, it’s indistinguishable from any human business buildings; having long left the old cargo ship, however, they kept the name Jericho for the building.

After checking in at reception, they walked into the elevator going to the penthouse. Once inside, Connor habitually fished out a coin, flipping it between his fingers. The round cupronickel disk flied up and down around his knuckles, switching to his other hand in the blink of an eye; the latter caught it effortlessly, never once slowing down. As the elevator ascended, the dollar coin sped between his hands, until he realized the girl staring at him like a cat fascinated by a ball of yarn.

“Sorry. Am I distracting you?” He remembered how Hank always gets annoyed with him, and nervously put the coin away.

“No! It’s just…” her eyes lifted up to look at him with unexpected adoration. “I think it’s really cool. I can never do that with my clumsy hands, I can’t even twirl a pen. I tried when I was in school and my friends would laugh at me. It’s cool how good you’re at that. I wish I would be able to learn it from you.”

Connor simply looked at her as she rambled on, not completely clear on why she would find something that Hank dismissed as weird to be anything worth complimenting. It’s not a hard trick to learn for androids, most of them masters it after a couple tries. 

But somehow, he did feel something akin to happiness. “I can teach you, any time, if you’re interested.” He dropped the coin into her open palm, the softness of her flesh disturbed his sensory system, a foreign feeling of not being in complete control rushed over him, startled him into pulling back his hand quite suddenly.

…

That strange feeling lingered within him after the odd moment, which had led to him failing to notice when his friend had walked out. “Long time no see, Connor.”

“…hi, Markus.” The android paused for an unusually long couple of seconds before nodding at him.

All the while, the girl was quietly observing this legendary android. He was tall and broad-built, dark skin, his eyes were a mismatching color, buried deep in his sharp features. There was a compassionate kindness about him, he wore a fitting trench coat, camouflage pants, and short leather boots. She wanted to compliment him for being a sharp dresser, unlike the android she came here with today, who always wore suits at work, and whose only non-work outfit was not even sensible by her small hometown standards.

“You’re the journalist, I presume?” He turned to her, smiled, and reached out a hand. A young female android with blonde hair stood quietly by his side, observing her.

“Yes, it is nice to meet you, Mr. Markus, Ms. North.” She shook his hand, and smiled at the woman, who looked at her somewhat puzzled. “I have to say, that kiss was very moving to me.” The girl winked, and North looked away, somewhat shy.

“Kiss?” Connor glanced at them back and forth, a strand of loose hair fell on his forehead.

“Let’s get to the point.”

She and Markus exchanged a few looks, and Markus took Connor by the arm. The androids’ synthetic skin touched and melted away, revealing the white, mechanic interior. The two of them closed their eyes, letting their LED lights spin yellow, and instantly completed a transfer of information that would otherwise take humans at least four to five hours in a meeting to exchange.

She couldn’t help to wonder, standing there and watching them, spacing out, that if all communication could be this simple, the amount of misunderstanding and prejudice that could be eliminated would be vast.

Just as she thought they were done, Markus suddenly started saying, “what do you think? Can we talk about it?” He stepped aside, leading them to a meeting room behind him.

“Oh. I thought the two of you were…” It was her turn to glance back and forth with confusion.

“Just some basic data transfer. This isn’t just about androids, it’s about humans too. We can’t very well achieve true efficient communication if we only ever communicated with our own. The future is a collective one, after all.”

She could tell that he was serious and sincere, and he reminded her of Mona and the way her eyes shined under the night sky, not totally unlike his. She had also said something about a collective future, a light.

…

“I totally get it now! Everyone at Jericho kept saying the same things, handsome, sophisticated, good taste, so passionate and considerate too…” she kept going on and on about the revolutionary on their return trip. They had been given a tour after the lengthy meeting, and that had delayed their return by quite a bit. However, she was excited about all the material she had gathered. The android, on the other hand, had been quiet and seemingly deep in thought ever since they left Jericho.

“Connor?” It took her the distance from the building to the bus stop to realize something was off about him. He sat on the bench, head drooped low, and when she went over to check on him, Connor suddenly looked up with a serious face, startling her. “The RK800 model is the newest prototype in the RK series. After the RK200, synthetic life has achieved new levels in every functional component, which is especially apparent in the newer makes. Under normal conditions of wear and tear, the newer models’ original factory parts excel in functional compatibility.”

She looked at him as he rambled on to more comparative data, not sure what to say or what to make of it, only that the android somehow sounded proud, and turned visibly upset the moment he made eye contact with her.

“And as for appearances…” he sounded unsure. “They are tailored to appeal to the better service of humans, but as you know, human aesthetics is very unique, so we, uh, it’s impossible for us to meet every preference…” he was genuinely distressed and helpless when he said it; he was avoiding eye contact and trailing off towards the end, where she discovered a hint of frustration.

It was dark outside, and they were alone at the bus stop. Neon lights from the billboards engulfed them, and they found themselves surrounded by silence, in the absence of the last late bus. She had been unusually slow to read the atmosphere until now, when she suddenly noticed the oddity between them.

“I didn’t mean it like that, Connor, of course, um, you’re great too. I’m so sorry I sounded inconsiderate at any point.” She was starting to reform her opinion on androids’ self-esteem.

Connor said nothing, so she sighed and took his hand, squinting slightly at him, feigning an effort to imitate android communication. “Hmm…mmm…I don’t feel anything.”

Connor looked down, staring at her hands clasping his, the softness of her touch reminded him of that strange moment in the elevator when he felt out of control, and all at once, it poured into his brain from his synthetic nerve endings, leaving him perplexed. He managed to grab her as she started to pull away.

“Connor?”

He didn’t respond. Something inside was falling apart and reconstructing into something else, like that night at Jericho when he accepted his self-awakening. A brand new kind of emotion rose up and slammed against his self-control, again and again, sounding all the alarms, using up his restraint to get out.


	8. Bad Taste and a Kiss

Recently, Lieutenant Anderson also discovered something odd about his stubborn partner.

He always knew Connor cared about appearances, but perhaps a bit too much of late. Connor had started asking him dumb things like, “lieutenant, do you think my face looks dumb”, and making an effort searching around the crime scene for the reporter girl first before he would do his usual routine of bending over the evidence and sticking out his tongue to lick whatever gross substances in front of Hank.

“Oh that’s gross, when are you gonna start to care about not letting me see this.”

While fighting back the urge to vomit, Hank started to question himself whether he’d been partners with an ungrateful douchebag for three years.

Hank’s house guest, too, found the android she’s been living with was acting strange.

Ever since they held hands at the bus stop that night, the android would ever so slightly smile when she would pat his shoulder or head when Hank was being mean, although it looked more like a twitch.

What is happening? She, too, questioned whether she was actually a robot charger when she found herself once again in the corner of the couch, pressed against the android’s back, who had promptly entered sleep mode, his LED flashing as he breathed.

He is male, technically. But he had this innocence in his eyes. That or she wasn’t as aware of android genders as she thought, but the girl didn’t think this was any kind of harassment. Besides, she had more pressing matters to solve. She sends manuscripts to her agency periodically, and the last time she did, she accidentally included the first few pages of a novel she’d been writing on her own. Somehow, it got published on the local paper, and became surprisingly popular.

The mock title of the novel was called The Adventures of Connor and Hank, and the main character was a smart, beautiful journalist. She would never tell anyone here if they asked, she’d just say it was a detective novel.

…

The proudest creation of CyberLife, the most high-end prototype RK800, thought his two human friends had been acting weird around him.

He didn’t care, though. People tend to have that look when they see expensive luxuries. He only cared about maintaining chivalrous whenever he came into physical contact with the girl. He had discovered a fascination with that feeling of not being in control, as inexplicable as it was, it felt good to be touched by her; it calmed his body. Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to do more than allow the girl to occasionally and accidentally touch him, other than trying to sneak closer to her when they’re both taking a break together. He thinks he’s been discrete.

Connor was deep in thought when he walked through Detroit’s business district. He was coming back from the precinct where he delivered some files, and how had half of a free day. He used to just stay home, having nothing better to do and no actual hobbies. But things are different now.

He looked at the shopping mall in front of him, then his phone, where he’d saved a picture from the girl’s social media feeds as of a few minutes ago.

Just one peek. It’s technically a crime if he stayed.

As a law enforcement android, hew was familiar with the law, and Connor constantly reminded himself to not do as Hank did, but he stopped in his tracks when he finally saw the familiar face in the crowd.

The girl was trying to read a price tag on the other side of a shop’s window. She looked up, did some mental math, then dropped her shoulders and moved on to the next store.

As the android tried to convince his own security system that he’s in no way trying to commit a crime, a commotion ahead distracted his attention.

“You useless plastic garbage! You can’t get anything right!”

The girl, now having realized she can’t afford anything here either, was just about to leave when she heard the middle-aged woman at the back of the shop, who pushed a sales rep. The Asian female android stumbled backwards, catching herself on the edge of the counter.

“I’m very sorry, ma’am, I didn’t mean to.” She lowered her head, retreating, her LED circle hidden underneath her bangs, flashing a nervous yellow.

“How did this kind of defect even leave the factory! You should’ve rotted in a dump.”

The woman was ready to kick the android again when she got distracted by the sound of a camera shutter. Not far from them, the girl was holding a miniature camera, her hand on her hip.

“Who’re you supposed to be?” She turned to her.

“Oh, no one, just a small firm reporter.” She showed her badge. “Continue all you want, ma’am. Don’t mind me, I’m just here getting us tomorrow’s headline.” She threatened to take more pictures on her camera, not expecting the woman to turn on her and physically trying to take it off her hands. They were in the middle of a struggle when she heard a familiar voice.

“Detroit PD, what seems to be the problem here?”

She looked up, and saw the android flashing his police badge. “Connor!”

The woman, now noticing the police and the crowd gathering around her, had no choice but to let go. She cursed under her breath, and left the store in a hurry. Under mall security’s directions, the crowd dissipated, and the android sales rep was finally able to make her way over to Connor and the girl.

“Thank you so much.” She bowed gratefully. “I don’t know what I did to upset the customer, I think I wasn’t trying hard enough…”

“No! Not at all, you know, some people are just rude and picky, just dumb people, really…” the girl shook her head, fumbling with her blouse, which had two buttons ripped out of it, “and a strong one, too.”

They comforted the female android and left the store, only then did she think to ask him, “why are you here?”

“…I was passing by.” He had no choice but to lie.

Unfortunately, Hank’s and the precinct were both in the opposite direction of the mall, so she was suspicious of how he happened to be passing by, but she thought that it had something to do with perhaps the seemingly crude android’s secret hobbies, like cross dressing or something, but he was too embarrassed to tell her. Although, if he was, he wouldn’t have had such a bland fashion sense.

“Speaking of which,” she rubbed her hands together, a passionate look on her face which only appeared when she used to play dress up with dolls as a kid. “Do you want me to shop for you?”

…

Maybe Markus only had good taste because he had actually lived with an artist for all those years.

She contemplated this as she was being handed a mustard-colored hoodie, the seventeenth pick Connor had given her of the same level of catastrophe. She couldn’t figure out whether it was how CyberLife made them at factory setting or if Hank had given him a bad influence. He was a high-end android with terrible taste in clothes that are not suits.

“Comfort is an important aspect of apparel, aesthetics is secondary to it. Beside, I think this one fits mine.”

“Connor.” She threw away that god-awful sweatshirt, and took him by the shoulders. “Listen, I am giving up on democracy, ok? From now on, I’m centralizing my power into a dictatorship.”

“That’s a bad form of governing…” he didn’t get to finish before she pushed him into a changing room, while she ran off and came back with piles of things he didn’t know how to put on.

“Um, I’m not sure how this fits my model, it’s too…”

“Just come out and let me see it.” She was high-spirited and confidently rushed the android to do a catwalk, albeit growing up in the country side, New York City when she was a college student gave her a sharp fashion sense. Better than the android, for sure.

Connor took his time to finally walk out from behind the curtain. She had picked out a white silk shirt with a checkered waistcoat, which came off as nicely poise and elegant; a long camel wool coat and light brown pants making him look even slender; a fedora and a dark orange handkerchief neatly folded in his front pocket, and the classic, tasteful ensemble was complete.

She was priding herself for her accomplishments, knowing she had been right to pick the pieces that went so well together. Connor was different from Markus, who was more modern and chic; Connor seemed more like a harmless college professor in comparison.

Looks can deceive, of course. No one would doubt a RK series android’s ability to kill.

“It feels, weird.” He pulled on his collar awkwardly, looking at himself in the mirror.

“It doesn’t look weird. Unlike that mustard outfit you picked with that ugly hat.” She patted him on the back,  telling him to bend down a little, so she can reach out and straighten his collars again. The tie she picked for him had subtle patterns that looked like circuits, intersecting lines coming together at the end of the tie where the tip closed off like a heart. She knew this would be a great fit for Connor, and decided to buy it for him as a gift.

She was too deep in thought to notice the android had been staring at her in the mirror with unusual gentleness. So of course, she would never know how bad he wanted this moment to last forever.

…

“Thank you for your present.”

After shopping, they sat on a bench on the plaza near the fountain, Connor with his back straight, holding on to the small, square box, which held the neatly packaged tie.

“It wasn’t anything expensive, I wanted to thank you for your help all this time. I’ll get something for Hank too, I haven’t thought of what yet.” She was munching on a triple dip ice cream cone, her feet swinging back and forth.

“I haven’t got you anything in return.” He sounded bothered.

“Yeah you did, you got me ice cream.” She took a bit out of the strawberry ball, a cold, sweet headache almost immediately shot through her brain.

“Don’t you want those clothes you were looking at earlier? My salary should be enough to pay for those.” Connor looked at her with all seriousness. They didn’t end up buying anything he tried on.

“Quit showing off, fine, I know you got money.” She made a face at him. “But you don’t have to get anything if that’s not what you really want for yourself.”

She was concentrating on attacking her cone, the soft night wind blew on her face, and the sunset dyed the fountain a spectrum of orange. In front of them, on the side of the shopping mall, a giant screen was showing clips of a classic film. Against a black and white backdrop, the frame froze on the man kissing his beloved girl.

Connor was reminded of a few days ago, when the girl asked Markus and North about the kiss, not quite knowing why all of his jealousy and hostility were, all of a sudden, so inexplicably softened.

“People are moved by the strangest things.”

She had just come out of the shower then, and he remembered smelling her shampoo dissipating in the air.

“I think it’s because never have another life form stood on the same level as humanity. And it’s been so long, that we don’t know how to make of our differences and equality. But that kiss made us realize that, everything, in the end, is all the same.”

She scratched her hair and smiled. “It’s not something I can really teach, you know. You have to figure it out on your own.”

…

He knew about that part. He just wondered if practice is the fastest way to learning.

He reached out, and brushed away her brown hair, flowing in the wind, and, as he looked into her confused eyes, he leaned over, slightly tilted his head, and touched her cold, strawberry lips with his own.

It tasted just as sweet as he had imagined.


	9. On the Meaning of Love

_What to do when an android kisses you?_

_Signs of androids becoming self-aware?_

_What are androids?_

She sat, cross-legged on her bed, staring at the search results, not knowing what to think. To be honest, she stopped thinking at around the third search phrase, she was just looking for anything on the internet to comfort herself.

The world must be crazy.

She leaned back into her soft blankets, and threw a pillow over her face. Nothing she does can make her stop thinking about that kiss.

When the android pulled away, she managed to stutter something like, “if you wanted ice cream you could’ve just asked” and therefore avoiding to address the mess of a situation they were in. Connor didn’t do anything weird afterwards, he just stared at her for a while, but soon resumed his usual nonchalant attitude. Speaking of which, what kind of a kiss was that?

It was ice cold, light as a feather, she only felt it on her lips for about two seconds, which are less seconds than when he used to taste criminal evidence to analyze their contents. Also, what was that attitude? He continued as if nothing happened afterwards, and if she actively tried to avoid him, he would make this face like he doesn’t know what he did wrong, and it makes her feel sorry every time.

Does he even understand what it meant?

It has to be some kind of experiment, not actual emotion-driven, right?

Unbeknownst to her, this thought made her sad.

Her phone suddenly vibrated, bringing her back to reality. She thrashed her pillow aside wistfully, and threw herself face up on the bed, and read the message. It was an e-vote for a wedding. She read it over a few times, and was just about to construct a heartwarming-yet-regretful decline because she can’t get away from work, when the sender preemptively called her out of the blue.

“Oh, hey, Mark! Long time no see, congratulations, dude…”

To avoid making it awkward, she rushed a bunch of congrats out before anything else, trying to make it sound sincere and happy.

“No, I…no, I’m actually in Detroit right now…oh really? That’s such a coincidence.” Her smile begins to slowly fade away, before she could even throw her already-conceived excuse at him. “No, yeah, in that case I’ll definitely be there, ok I gotta…no, no, not at all, I do have a, uh…” she regretted it the second she began that sentence, “I have a boyfriend, yeah…we’ll both be there, for sure, yes see you then, alright.”

Lying is never a good habit.

What else could she have done? It was her ex, and she just wanted to save face in front of him, to keep up her ridiculous and pitiful pride.

After the call, she slapped her phone into the pillow and squeezed her eyes shut to reflect upon her anxiety and regret. Friends of the same age have all either gotten married or been planning on it, yet here she was, freaking out over an android kissing her on the lips.

“It’s fine, I’ll just pretend it was Sumo. How am I supposed to find a boyfriend though…” she thought of something, pressed her fingertips to her lips, and concentrated on ignoring that tiny voice in her head suggesting the unthinkable. It can’t happen, he can’t even understand the concept of love.

Her eyes were fogging up and itching, which she contributed to the brightness of the lights.

…

“She goes to bed early now?”

Hank, sitting on the couch, made a comment directed at the girl’s closed door at the end of the hall. Usually they can hear typing in her room at one or two in the morning, but for the past few days she’s been slipping into her room right after dinner and staying unusually quiet. Hank claimed that he can’t be bothered by what young people are up to these days, so he just kept drinking beer and glancing at the android’s video player from time to time. He was staring at a paused frame of a man and a woman kissing. The same frame Hank saw out of the corner of his eyes when he sat down fifteen minutes ago.

“The hell are you watching?” He asked suspiciously.

“ _Waterloo Bridge_. It premiered on May 17 th, 1940, starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor. It’s a romantic classic, with…”

“No, I mean why have you been staring at a paused screen for the past fifteen minutes.”

“To understand the meaning of kissing to humans. Not the biological urge, but on an emotional level. I can imitate emotion, but only when assigned the task with a specific goal, and not out of my own will…”

Connor saw the man taking another sip of beer, and realized he wasn’t understanding the point, so he rephrased it again, clear this time: “how come she didn’t seem to enjoy it when I kissed her?”

He was immediately met with a mist of beer coming from Hank’s mouth, who began to violently cough from choking on the liquid.

“Hank? Are you ok?” The girl’s voice came from down the hall.

“Yep, fine! I’m fine! Just this freaking beer…”

Lieutenant Anderson took a few minutes to ease himself, and glared at the android who was wiping his face, lowered his voice, and tried again, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I said I kissed…”

“Jesus, what is wrong with this world.” Hank buried his face in his hands, and immediately denied himself the thought of throwing Connor in jail for sexual harassment, made peace with himself, looked up, and said, “and then what happened?”

Connor tilted his head and blinked at him, indicating that those were the only events to have transpired.

“Don’t tell me you think girls just magically fall in love with you when you kiss them on the lips. God, what’s in that robot head of yours, Disney movies?”

Hank felt dizzy, he even wanted to throw his prudish android partner back to Eden and let the two android girls work on him a little bit.

“Hank, I need your help.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Ignoring his puppy eyes, lieutenant Anderson turned up the volume of his music, letting it wash away every piece of insane information he’d heard tonight.

…

It was a kiss, but it was just a kiss.

As time went on, with no follow up, that random, awkward kiss had started to gradually fade from her memory. What’s been bothering her first and foremost was the fact that tomorrow she had to bring her nonexistent boyfriend to her ex’s wedding.

It was too obvious now to come up with excuses like work or emergencies.

She wondered if Detroit had boyfriends for rent or other services like that. Anyone would…no, not anyone, at least someone young, with a respectable career, medium looks, tall enough, and follows order well enough to not out her…

As she listed these things in her head, she subconsciously kept glancing at Connor who was nearby. Apart from her brain being immersed in vanity, every cell in her body screamed don’t do it at her.

“You looked in my direction 16 separate times in the last 30 minutes. I assume you wanted to ask me something?” When Connor came up to her with all the world’s innocence, she developed a newfound hatred for technology.

“So, Connor…” she managed to smile. “Have you ever been to a wedding?”

And so it was her dark side that won.

…

“Sorry I kept you waiting.”

Connor heard her panicked voice around the corner and looked up from where he was standing at the door.

She usually dressed in jeans, shirts, and trench coats, but today she wore a simple, elegant lavender chiffon dress. The high-waisted design perfectly masked her height; the knee-length dress showcased her thin calf. She wore a pair of light beige heels with a clasp around the ankles, the only thing that stood out was the off-shoulder dress leaving open a blank space between her sharp collarbones.

“I couldn’t find the necklace that went with this outfit…never mind, we’re going to be late, let’s go!”

She held her hand against her chest, feeling defeated, but as they were pressed for time, she had to quickly catch up to the suited android’s pace, and smiling, when she saw that he wore the silver tie she had got him. After making sure she had everything she needed in her purse, and making sure that Hank was still asleep on the couch, she quietly locked the door behind her and grabbed the android, dashing out to the pavement hailing down a cab.

…

They arrived at the scene with some time to spare.

She picked a less conspicuous spot to stay in, looking around she saw some familiar faces and some strangers’. She wasn’t very active in college, and only had a handful of friends, plus she took random elective so that she never had anyone in the same classroom more than once. Basically, pretty much everyone there were acquaintances to her.

Exactly why did I agree to come to this? She thought.

She patted her curled hair and took a look at the man beside her. He seemed just as usual, replacing his cop uniform with a standard suit, same hair, and a bandaid skillfully covering up the LED circle on his temple.

“Sorry I made you do this with me.”

Connor blinked, not really feeling troubled at all, since it’s part of his job to pretend to be human and gaining strangers’ trust.

“Hi! I didn’t think I’d see you here…”

The girl turned around and discovered a slender woman and a sturdy woman walking toward her, and it took her a while to remember that their names were Joanna and Christina, known as drama queens in their class.

She couldn’t think of anything worse than being here right now and being caught in front of them.

“We don’t mind anymore, it’s been years.” One of them took a bite of their dessert, and mumbling through the food.

“Your boyfriend?” Joanna glanced at Connor, and the girl smiled and nodded, trying to limit her words as much as possible.

“I’m Connor. Nice to meet you.” The android nodded too, more politely so. He was advised to remain silent and still next to the girl.

“I guess you’ve always been into this type.”

Christina, having finally gobbled down the raspberry cookie, squinted at Connor. “Mark was a lot like this one too, quite shy.”

She kept the smile on her face, despite understanding the context of that being she has bad taste in men.

“Oh wait, did you hear about what’s been happening on campus?” Joanna abruptly changed the topic, her tone hushed and mysterious. “They say that some people heard mechanical noises in the library in the middle of the night, and footsteps, and a woman’s voice.” Her cheekbones elongated as her eyes opened wider. “Do you remember before we graduated, there was an android that died in an incident? The librarian? I think her name was Mona? I don’t know, anyways, it was something like that.” Christina picked up a champagne flute off of a waiter’s tray.

“Well, they said the thing was horrific, there were limbs everywhere, her eyeballs got gouged out, and the core was all stumped to pieces…which was even weirder because that android still had a book in her hand when they found her…”

“Hah, stop saying that, it’s a machine, it can’t actually die.”

The words grabbed at her like she was sinking into a swamp, dragging her, rapidly and unwillingly, into her most dreadful memories. A chill shot down her spine and traveled through her body, bringing everything back to that cold winter night. Her incompetence, her weaknesses, everything sank to the bottom of her stomach and twisted her guts.

“Hey, you look like you know something about this.”

Joanna only grew more curious as the girl fell silent and went pale.

“No…um, I…sorry, I haven’t been back to school in years…”

Her pale lips trembled, struggling to produce a full sentence.

“Ladies, I think the ceremony is starting.”

She heard Connor’s voice above her, and a strong, steady arm wrapping around her waist, pulling her gently towards the chapel, leaving behind the two women in a stupor, shocked by the android’s cold stare.

…

“Hey, thanks…”

After she had sat on the wooden bench and recovered a bit, the girl sighed, secretly angry at herself for almost losing it in front of those two. It had been ample time for her to get over it, and the fact that she hadn’t yet bothered her to no avail.

“I should’ve recorded for Hank to see, so he could better understand what unpopular opinion is.” The android had his hands clasped on his knee, which was unlike his usual posture, from where she sat, his profile seemed oddly sneering. It was unlike him to show this kind of emotion.

Suddenly they heard the music start, and guests began to stand up row by row, as a white figure appeared outside the double doors.

The sacred music and others’ happiness around her soothed her gloomy mood, and she felt her heart easing as the ceremony continued.

She didn’t hold anything against Mark. Mark was a wonderful guy. They dated for about three years, and he’d always been a model boyfriend. No messy exes from the past, no questionable hobbies, he was quite considerate, even. They agreed to break up, and stayed in touch after that, as friends. She once thought that they had really loved each other, and just had to end things because of other reasons.

People always change when you least expect them to. Which makes love a vulnerable endeavor.

At least she has something to gossip about now that she had the experience of going to an ex’s wedding. So today, she decided to fully commit to congratulating the newlywed.

Her eyebrows unfurled a bit and she began to smile.

 _Target mood stabilized._ Connor, upon receiving the update, was also able to relax a little.

“And now the groom may kiss the bride.”

As these words rang within the chapel walls, the android’s eyes suddenly dashed away from the girl to the center of the room with an alarming rate.

…

“Kiss her! Kiss her!”

She held the bouquet in her hand, and the crowd of guests cheered around her, rendering everything into complete chaos.

It wasn’t her intention to join the mob of desperate single ladies, but somehow that’s where she ended up.

“Don’t you want it? I gathered that the bouquet symbolized good luck.” The android was glowing, “I had calculated the projectile curve and was able to determine where to put you when it landed.”

“Connor…” she winced, hitting her forehead with her palm. “God, do you even know what we have to do now?”

The android tilted his head, and she saw for a second, the gleaming yellow light from underneath his bandaid.

“Of course I do. You taught me.”

He gently pulled her in, crouching slightly so their faces were up against each other, where the bouquet in her hand conveniently blocked the crowd’s sight. Guest cheered and whistled all around them, but none of them knew, none but her, that his bright eyes paused merely centimeters away, and his cold lips, instead of pressing against hers, simply murmured a silent, “I’m sorry.”

…

He was sure the girl would be in a good mod today.

He sat on the couch in the dark petting Sumo, Hank’s snoring barely audible in the next room.

During the entire reception dinner, the girl’s cheeks were flushed, but she didn’t try to avoid his conversations or even when he touched her. Maybe sometimes not kissing is the better way? Humans have many other ways to express emotions, and not all have to be through kissing. However, he did feel a certain kind of obligation in the act.

Being successful in his mission and what not, Connor thought that now the girl would resume her usual behavior around him.

What was so special about Mark, though? He was overall average, at best, as an adult human male.

The android closed his eyes, and instantly, was back into the strange dream he once had.

It was the same location, only slightly different this time.

Connor looked around, the same plain whiteness, the same figure of the girl standing alone in the distance. But the platform beneath him, however, extended a piece in her direction.

He carefully stepped onto the irregular block of ground, and it immediately extended some more, with every step he took, the platform grew forward until he was halfway through a white bridge, when everything suddenly stopped and there he was, standing in between two large platforms, unable to move forward, as if a glass shield had descended in front of him.

But he can watch the girl more closely now.

And she seemed to have noticed him.

Only she made no movements, just stared at him, with hesitation and confusion in her eyes.

Connor suddenly recalled a piece of information from his strategy training.

Sometimes, waiting just is another way to advance.


	10. A Dear Friend

New lipstick palettes, luxury handbags, shiny jewels, endless flowers and good-looking men, if fairy tale writers had any common knowledge, they’d know that women are the far more obsessed species when it comes to treasures and riches, like dragons that obsessively guard their possessions.

Hank thought his logic was impeccable, seeing that he was standing in a dragon’s nest right now.

This cramped apartment in the old part of town was painted entirely in pink, and luxury designer items were stacked everywhere, clothing, shoes, jewelry, whoever’s the owner clearly can’t be bothered to take care of them, just scattering things across fur carpets, stacked on top of each other in corners. Flamboyant décor was everywhere, he didn’t doubt the expensiveness of this apartment, albeit it inevitably looked overdone and cheap.

The woman buried in all of this expensive garbage was also flamboyant, to say the least. She wore a silver sequins dress, lacquered in makeup, which was slightly melting off her face of perpetual horror, blood had dyed her abdomen crimson, her intestines exposed, dark red patterns splashed all over the walls. A fowl stench of decomposition mixed with a shattered perfume bottle filled the small space, inducing an uncomfortable urge to vomit.

“Vivian Wood, 36, worked as security for a transport company. She was fired for misconduct, and had been unemployed ever since. The building superintendent found her at 5pm when he came to collect rent. Her estimated time of death is 25 days ago. Anything else we’d have to wait till forensics get here.” Someone was following Hank around, filling him in on the victim’s background.

“Are you saying someone unemployed and living in Detroit could afford this bag?” He used a pen to pick up the chains of a nearby black handbag, noticing there were several other ones of the same make in different colors. “I should quit my job then, and get rid of that annoying piece of plastic.”

The android selectively ignored his offensive comments, he had already done a rough scan of the crime scene and the body, and concluded that there definitely was an android present when it all went down, but inconclusive whether it committed the murder.

There were some withered roses in a vase, and he dabbed his finger on a petal, taking some of the blue blood on the surface. He looked to the doorway, and saw that the girl was crouched over in the hall, so he quickly licked the blood away.

He hadn’t felt uncomfortable about this feature really until now, and he kind of wished that the designer had installed it elsewhere.

…

It was not her fault, the scene was just too much.

She had endured the stench in the air up until the point she saw the decomposed mess of a corpse, after that she dashed out of the room wither her hand over her mouth, gasping for air. Moments later, when she finally got ahold of herself, straightened her back against the wall, and was mentally prepping herself to go back in, she noticed an announcement board hanging on the opposite wall.

The humidity of the rain season had actually bred mold all over the scruffy wallpaper, and the floorboard lacquer had been mostly worn away, making it the same age as the building itself. The announcement board was filled with flyers overlapping, ads and rental info, hostile communication between tenants, notices from the superintendent, and lost and found posters. Most were out of date, but she noticed a newer looking flyer on top of all the other ones: TE400 model android missing, if found, please return to room 401, award 30 dollars.” The flyer was printed except for the “3”, which was written with ink, and the original number that was crossed out was obvious a “5”.

Doesn’t seem like they want to find it at all, she thought. They didn’t even print a picture of the TE400. She rolled her eyes, and felt a pat on her shoulder. Something warm touched her cheek, and she turned around to discover a can of warm coffee on her shoulder.

“How are you feeling?” Connor handed her the coffee.

“Better. Thanks.”

The can warmed her hands, she opened it and took a sip, the hot, milky latte ran down smoothly through her throat to her stomach, calming her down from the coldness and discomfort.

“You didn’t need to come with us to these things, we could’ve made you a file…” the android looked around the room, to be honest, it’s a burden even to people who’re supposed to be professionals.

“No, no, I wanted to be here, I’ll get used to it, I promise. Sorry.” She stood upright in a panic, wondering if she was being judged for her unprofessionalism.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Connor’s gaze landed on her neck. She had taken off her scarf, and a small area of bare skin showed against her sweater collar, notifying him that she had lost a necklace days ago.

“It could still be dangerous at an investigated crime scene.” He fumbled around in his suit pocket, fishing something shiny out, and carefully laid it in his palm in front of her. It was a necklace. “I thought you could use a portable device for whenever you needed to contact me, so if something like last time happened again, I can do a better job protecting you, of course, I don’t want you to…” he looked down, feeling guilty for his incapability.

“I don’t want you to be in danger like that again.”

She took the necklace and observed it. On its silver chain hung a black cube about one centimeter on all sides. Its aesthetic was very minimalism, and when she felt it, there were two small bumps on the sides that can be pressed down. She held it against the light and saw tiny fonts carved into it: RK800-51.

“Is that your serial number?” She asked curiously.

“Yes. Sorry, it’s taken out of my body parts, and there’s a number on all of them. I tried to get rid of it, but it seems like CyberLife didn’t really want you to.” He was rubbing his hands together out of habit, and nervously noticing her facial expressions change, trying to determine whether she liked the gift.

“Oh my god, are you sure this is okay?” She exclaimed in fright, turning him around to check if there’s actually anything missing. It wasn’t like someone disassembling a lego toy, of course she had to panic.

“Don’t worry, it’s not an important part.” Seeing she wasn’t rejecting the necklace, Connor resumed excitement and tried to show her how to use the thing, “Press the buttons on both sides, and it’ll let you setup a password. When you say the password out loud, it will automatically turn on, and your location and voice recording will be sent back to my telecommunication system.” When he finally saw her smile, an alarm went off in his head rendering the blue LEC circle yellow.

As the necklace was placed back in his hand, the light turned complete red.

He was a little frantic trying to come up with an excuse that could persuade her to keep the device, but the girl simply held back her hair, lowered her head, and said, “can you help me put it on?”

The android was stunned staring at her pale neck, he bent over slightly, his hands brushed past her soft, caramel hair, and her body vaguely pressed his. He felt warm, steady breathing on his chest, and she was calm and still, like reed fields bending over in a gentle breeze, or a queen waiting to be crowned.

“It’s done.” With a click of the clasp, he reluctantly back away.

The girl held up the pendant, pressing both buttons. “Connor,” She looked up at him, a warm smile in her eyes. “Thank you.”

The words rang in his head, clear and crisp, like electric currents zooming through every single neural path, activating a strange numbing sensation in his body.

…

After work at the crime scene, they made it back to Detroit PD before the storm went down.

The girl was hugging the back of her chair and watching Hank happily consuming junk food, being reminded that she had barely eaten anything today, and hotdogs are really inappropriate after witnessing human intestines hanging out of a corpse. “I love how experienced lieutenant Anderson is, really.”

“Only at eating, he is.” The android was going over some files sitting next to her. The precinct was short on space, and androids don’t really need much of it, so she was temporarily placed in Connor’s office. Even though they shared the same space, but the entire desk area was almost taken over by different sorts of personal items, from cartoon mugs to mint colored folders. Good thing the android didn’t really mind his workspace being occupied, occasionally he’d play around with some of her animal figurines.

“You know what, you can actually shut your mouth, people don’t actually think you’re broken when you don’t talk.” Hank stuffed the last piece of sausage in his mouth, brushed off the crumbs, and started working on the evidence.

“Connor, have you gotten the model on that blue blood?”

“Yes. TE400. It’s a household android designed by CyberLife in 2030. It’s default appearance is a human female around 16-18 years old. It’s mostly used as companion androids for children and teens.”

She looked up at the words of that description, which reminded her of something she saw earlier.

“There was a missing persons flyer at the apartment, someone lost an android of that exact make and model.”

Hank shook his head, “ever since the revolution there’re thousands of androids running away everyday.”

“Vivian Wood owned a TE400, but she lost it a month ago.”

“See.” Hank shrugged.

“Let’s not dwell on the unidentified android right now. The victim is far more interesting. She left her employer’s company, but didn’t fall in financial status. It seems that she had gained a large amount of money, without any legal ways of obtaining it, but we couldn’t find any evidence on illegal transactions either.”

Connor stopped, looking at the man leaning back in his chair. “Lieutenant, the rest of the file contains sensitive information.”

Hank coughed awkwardly, shifting his gaze.

“Oh, well, I’m going out to get some fresh air. Carry on.” She understood what it meant and stood up to leave the room. Some of these things were better not disclosed to the media, besides, she didn’t want them to feel awkward around her.

…

It was getting colder, and closer to Christmas.

She wrapped her coat tightly around herself, inhaling in the cold winter air actually made her mind clear. She yawned, and exhaled white steam into the night.

The storm died down a little, and there were hardly any foot traffic on the streets after dark. Which made her quickly discover the person standing underneath a street lamp a few meters away. The figure seemed like a boy, he had no umbrella, and was standing in the rain facing the police station. Waiting for someone, perhaps? She thought.

As she remained outside over the next 15 minutes, so did the boy, and the storm had gotten severe again.

“Hey!” She finally shouted into the rain, “do you need assistance? Come here! Get out of the rain, you’ll get sick!” She waved at the boyish figure, who visibly hesitated, but finally started to slowly make their way over.

Upon closer inspection, she realized the figure was perhaps 16 or 17 years old, wore an oversized jacket, short hair dyed grey, and colorful tattoos on their arm. Of course, she cared more about the fact that they were completely soaked, with water dripping on the carpet.

“Are you okay? Wait here, I’m gonna get you some towels.” She turned around to leave, but the child grabbed her wrist.

“Are you a police here?” Despite the lowered voice, she instantly discovered that it was a girl’s.

“No, I’m a reporter.” She turned around, confused, but handed her a card out of habit.

“You’re a reporter. Then maybe you can…damn it, there’s no other way.” She held onto the card rather tightly. “Can you please help me? My friend went missing, I think she’s in a lot of trouble, please, you have to save her.” Her body trembled as she spoke, her voice nearly breaking, and there were panic and fear in her light brown eyes.

“It’s okay, you can tell me anything…” the girl brought her over to sit on a bench and waited to her to calm down.

“Thanks…my name is Julian. My, um, friend, hasn’t showed up for almost a month. She’s never disappeared for this long before, and I can’t get ahold of her.”

“Is it possible that her parents took her on a trip and they didn’t have time to tell you? Could she have moved?”

“No…none of that is possible.”

“Okay. I think we should inform the police then.” She looked around the busy precinct. All sorts of cases get reported everyday, and it seemed that someone always dealt with them.

“It’s useless.” She sounded angry and offended.

“Do you have a photograph of her, so I at least know what your friend looks like?”

Julian unzipped her jacket, carefully pulling out a single photo, it was a picture of her and another girl, who had warm brown hair and green eyes. They were roughly the same age, hugging each other in the photo, happy. However, she couldn’t help but noticing the very prominent blue circular LED on the other girl’s temple.

“See. It’s…useless.” The girl’s fingers brushed over her friend’s face on the picture.

“She didn’t have any parents, the guy who bought her was a jerk. And the cops? As soon as they knew Mile was an android, they didn’t want the case. She was my only friend, we saw each other almost everyday. If it wasn’t for something horrible, she would never disappear on me like this! There was nothing I can do. No one believed me, and no one cared what happened to an android…”

Julian’s pained expression and voice stuck in her mind, almost crushing her under the weight. If she had been braver, more careless, if she had done this for Mona back then, then her friend too, her best, only friend…

“Please. Please, I can’t just leave my best friend in danger and not do anything.”

She felt something snap inside her at the end of that sentence.

If only she could still smile at her as she did on the first day, not just in her nightmares.

“Hey, who were you talking to?”

She turned around and discovered Hank and Connor walking towards her in the lobby.

“There’s a…” she looked for the girl, but Julian was nowhere to be found. All there’s left of her was the small puddle of water, and the dampened photos of the girls laughing together.

She looked out into the Detroit night, its shadows looming in the dark, anxious and masked.


End file.
